Unknown To You
by letgolaughing
Summary: A multichapter for EC Week 5! Post all the Storybrooke drama, Regina and David are happily married and Henry is growing up. Everything is perfect and everyone is happy until Regina is involved in a car crash and forgets who she is. Will cover the prompts Amnesia, Bed Sharing, Injury, First Date, and Regina Losing Magic.
1. Chapter 1

**This is a multichapter story for EC Week 5! It will cover prompts for Days 2 through 6. So it will entail Amnesia, Bed Sharing, Injury, First Date, and Regina Losing Magic. But not in that order. Enjoy!**

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David had never run so fast in his life as he was then sprinting from his truck and in through the hospital with Henry only a few minutes behind on his motorcycle having been pulled out of school by himself. He felt sick to his stomach ever since he had gotten the call that Regina had been in an accident. A pickup truck slamming in to the side of her Mercedes as she drove to work that morning. Allegedly on purpose. An attempt to end her life by a man particularly unwilling to forgive her for her actions in the past, even after redeeming herself so long ago. It was sickening.

Emma hadn't called him until they had settled Regina in to a room, still unconscious but miraculously appeared to be uninjured save for several cuts and deep bruises. They suspected her magic had played a part. But no one knew for certain how she had truly faired for she would not wake. So he sprinted through the hospital as fast as his legs would carry him and he soon heard her voice and burst in to tears at the sound of it. But the moment of overwhelming relief was washed away almost instantly. Something was different, something was wrong.

And then there was yelling and shouting, a complete ruckus in the room just down the hall as various things crashed to the floor and the yelling grew more intense, more panicked and far, far louder. And just as David got close, a nurse was thrown out of the room at a speed unobtainable by anything but magic and hit the wall across the hall that left her limp on the floor as a second nurse ran out of the room to tend to her while surrounding staff quickly flocked toward the scene.

"Where the hell am I!"

Her bellowing voice shot an old fear down his spine and through his skin and as he came to a panting halt next to the terrified nurses, Regina slunk out of the room. She was bloody, her hair a tangled mess, her clothes were torn and filthy, her steps were slow and furious, as though she were sizing up and stalking her next kill. Her hands were both filled with flames, ready to throw them at the very slightest provocation as she snarled at the women on the floor and bristled at the doctors and staff surrounding her.

She wasn't his Regina.

And then her attention snapped to him, her head swivelling to look at him and he felt his blood run completely cold at the expression on her face and it only got worse as recognition dawned on her, "Regina," he called gently as he lifted his hands a little in surrender and her lip curled back in a higher snarl.

"You," she growled as she stalked toward him and he held his ground.

"Regina, sweetheart," he tried to soothe but was answered with her flames being thrown at him in full force. The hospital filled with screams and protests as they ran and David ducked and dodged to the side to avoid her magic as best as he could but she was relentless and his leather jacket caught on fire as she followed his path. "Regina!" He shouted but her flames only came harder as the hospital staff scattered screaming aside from those shouting for sedation.

She only stopped when he threw a metal tray at her, scattering medical supplies across the hall as he did. It distracted her for a moment, stopping her fiery assault to catch it and it offered him time to pull his coat from his body and stomp out the flames but her temper was nowhere near dampened.

" _Sweetheart_?!" She bellowed incredulously as the metal tray clattered to the floor.

"What the hell is going on in here?!" Emma exclaimed as she jogged back in to the hall.

"Emma no!" David warned but it didn't offer much time for her to react as Regina sized her up and shot her hand forward, vicing an invisible grip around his daughter's throat and lifting her in the air, "Emma! Regina!"

"Regina! What the hell!" Emma pushed out as she thrashed and tried to get free. But the magic only tightened further and her expression grew all the more rabid and cruel, a face she had never seen on anyone before.

"Regina!" David shouted but the woman wouldn't listen and as he watched her fingers start to tighten further and Emma start to fight for breath harder, he threw himself at her. Knocking her off her balance and out of her focus, slamming her against the wall and praying that he didn't hurt her. "Enough, love," he breathed and suddenly she had vanished and purple smoke took her place. Before he had so much as a chance to look for her he was being thrown backward and his back hit the opposite wall of the hall with enough force to leave him winded and fighting for breath just as Emma coughed for her own up the hall a little ways.

" _Sweetheart_?! _Love_?!" She snarled as she prowled up to him and he grunted as he rolled on to his hands and knees with a grimace, "who do you think you are, filthy shepherd?! I am your queen! The _only_ thing you may call me is 'Your Majesty'!"

"Regina," he grimaced as he tried to get to his feet only to have her call a scalpel from the floor and press it to his throat as she leaned down in to his face, bending at the knees and waist so her wild dark eyes were level with his. It was like calling upon a memory, being overwhelmed by déjà vu, her expression was so cold and so cruel, he knew right then and there that she absolutely would kill him. He wasn't with Regina, she wasn't there. The woman standing before him with a scalpel to his throat was without a doubt the Evil Queen. A very angry and very upset Evil Queen.

"Your majesty," he conceded and she accepted it but did not back off.

"That is better," she snarled as she dipped in closer.

Then David practically jumped out of his skin at the sound of a gunshot and Regina threw herself away from him with a shout of pain and outrage, dropping the scalpel and pressing her hand to her upper arm. He watched her fling herself away from him and then snapped his attention to Emma who stood with her gun in hand and its barrel trained on Regina, "Emma, what were you _thinking_!"

"She was going to kill you!"

"Emma-!"

" _Emma_ ," Regina drew out smoothly, her voice like a velvety song written to truly appreciate the name for the first time as she slowly turned around with a vicious smile and blood seeping through her fingers from her wound.

Emma's face paled at her name being said in such a truly evil tone, as if a demon were singing it from her closet in the middle of the night. Her heart skipped and the hairs on the back of her neck rose in unease and fear and she could not recall a single instance in her life she regretted more than shooting Regina in the arm.

" _Dear_ ," she smiled with a cock of her head and then without the flare of smoke, disappeared from beside the shepherd and reappeared right in front of the spooked blonde so quickly if you had blinked you would have missed it. It unsettled the blonde even further and Regina settled herself well within the woman's personal space, stopping only inches from her as the blonde tried and failed to breathe smoothly. The fear that hitched and shook their breaths before they died was always the most satisfying part to her.

"What happened, Regina-" in an instant Emma's voice was silenced by the woman's bloodied hand wrapped around her throat and her nails digging in to her skin.

"Stop calling me that!" Regina hissed in her face as she pulled at her wrist, "what makes you think you have the authority to call me by my name," she snarled and her grip tightened, "pretty little _peasant_."

"Seriously?" Emma pushed out in confusion and the next thing she knew, her head was being slammed against a wall hard enough to make her vision tunnel for a moment. But even in her disorientation, Emma could still make out a shining scalpel being twirled in the woman's free hand, her arm clearly unhindered by the bullet wound. David was on his feet in an instant at the sight of the blade but before he got anywhere close to them, Regina was throwing him down the hall, spinning him in midair with nothing but a thought as she quickly drew back her arm with every intention to stab the blonde to death.

But the scalpel never hit its mark.

It was intercepted with by a book being thrust between herself and the blonde and outrage scorched through her veins once more and it came out in a loud and most furious yell.

"Mom! Mom, what are you doing?!" Henry shouted in disbelief and she threw Emma to the floor once more before whirling around to face him with a snarl that made him shrink back in fear.

"Who the hell are you!" She roared furiously at the young man and then laughed incredulously, "I am no one's mother!"

Henry never thought he would see the day she ever said that. No matter the circumstances, she always _insisted_ that she was his mother. To him, to Emma, to Snow, to anyone with ears. And yet there she stood laughing at the idea. It caught him off guard and he opened his mouth to speak only to close his mouth again. And then he shook his head with a quiet and baffled, "are you serious?"

"Do I look like a mother to you, _boy_?!"

Unsure of what to say to that, Henry did a quick glance of his surroundings. Emma trying to catch her breath on the floor, the emptiness of the hospital, the mess, the scorch marks on the floor and walls, the blood on herself, the blood on Emma, and then to David who was looking worse for wear standing a safe distance away shaking his head in warning with an expression that sunk Henry's heart. He knew she had been in an accident and given the chaos and the menacing temper, Henry was left to assume she didn't remember who she was. And given the fact she had been ready to kill both Emma and David without a thought, he was left to conclude that the last thing she remembered was being the Evil Queen.

It made his heart sink. But he didn't skip a beat.

"I apologize, your majesty," he began politely, humbly even with a slight dip of his head and she listened closely with steady eyes boring in to his own, "I am sure that none of this makes any sense right now but I would be happy to help you make sense of it. I imagine you have a lot of questions. I can answer them for you," he told her and for a long while, she didn't move. Just stared at him with a scowl.

What got to him the most was the lack of recognition in those dark eyes. She had watched him grow up, had played witness to his whole life, had known him better than anyone else and now she stood there learning his face for the very first time. It broke his heart and he wanted nothing more than to pull her in to a hug and let go only when she remembered who she was. But that would not go over well at that particular moment.

"Where am I?" She asked lowly and for the first time, she actually got an answer.

"You are in Storybrooke. You cast your Dark Curse and this is the town you created. The curse was broken several years ago but you found your happiness regardless. This morning on your way to your office your...vehicle was hit by another's and you were brought here to the Storybrooke hospital to make sure you weren't going to die. From what I can tell, you seem to be just fine, thank goodness," he laughed a little in relief and her eyes narrowed suspiciously so he sobered very quickly, "it just looks like you don't remember some things," he noted and stared at him through those narrow eyes for a long while until Emma pushed herself up on to her feet with a huff. And even when her eyes did leave his to look at Emma, it was merely a bored glance in her direction before they were back on him.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Henry," he told her and he could see something twinge inside her, something shift uncomfortably at the name, "I am your son."

Regina scoffed a disbelieving laugh and shook her head, "that is impossible," and then her tone switched to anger for their efforts at playing with her mind, "I cannot have a child!"

"He is my son," Emma pitched in gently with a slightly hoarse voice, "but I put him up for adoption as a newborn and you are the one that took him home," she explained and the wild brunette only seemed to spiral deeper into her rage once more. She was terrifying. Emma had once felt pride over being able to deal with who she had thought to be the Evil Queen. Had once wondered why her parents had had such a difficult time in the Enchanted Forest with the queen. At one point she had even started to believe that the stories in Henry's book were exaggerations.

But after today, those stories were very clearly downplayed impressively. This woman was a raving lunatic, she was a killer through and through and she scared her. She never wanted to cross paths with her again and could not believe that Regina had come so far to be the kind and feisty woman Emma called a friend.

"This is absolutely ridiculous!" She roared as she stepped away from the boy and spun to look at the shepherd standing just off to the side, "you expect me to fall for this?!"

"Fall for what?"

"Oh don't play stupid, shepherd! You and your dear wife are behind all of this, aren't you?! You've incapacitated me, taken me to this place, woven me this story of a happy ending and a family, and then woke me up! Trying to distract me, trying to deter me from for what I have in store for you! It isn't going to work, shepherd!"

"No, Regina, that is not-"

"How old is this boy?! Seventeen?! Eighteen?! You are trying to make me believe that I have forgotten what, nearly twenty years of my life?!"

"No, Regina, we are trying to tell you you've lost at least thirty six," he told her gently and felt utterly sick doing so, "if not more."

"You expect me to believe that?" She questioned with an amused smile and began walking toward him, "whose idea was this? Your precious wife's? Some last ditch attempt to give me a happy ending?" She drawled out bitterly, her humour lost with every step closer she took to the shepherd.

"Snow and I are no longer married, your majesty," he told her and she scoffed another laugh, "you saw to that quite some time ago," he assured and she stopped right in front of him. Dark and merciless eyes, a snarl twitching at her full lips, her posture tall and rigid, her movements pointed and fluid, her presence strong and proud and angry. The woman that had worked so hard to be good was nowhere to be seen and it was so disappointing. For she had worked so hard to be better, so hard to get to where she had been. He just wanted to pull her in to him and hold her and tell her that everything was going to be okay.

"And how, shepherd, did I see to that?" She purred viciously as she tipped in a little closer, "hmm?"

"I know how to show you we are telling the truth," Henry interrupted for if David told her that they were married, she would have slashed his throat right then and there without hesitation. And they didn't need that. Slowly, the queen swivelled her head to look his way but what broke Henry's heart was how David didn't look away from her for even a moment. He looked at her with all of the love and sorrow and patience in the world. He wasn't going anywhere, Henry knew right at that moment, David would go to the grave fighting for her no matter the circumstances they found themselves in and if Henry weren't so devastated by the loss of his mother, he would have smiled. But unlike she did David, the queen held absolutely no memory of the son who loved her more than anything.

"And how is that?"

"I have a book that holds recorded stories of everyone in the Enchanted Forest I can send Emma to go get it along with some photo albums of our time here in Storybrooke. She can also bring you a change of clothes if you like. They are quite different from what you wore in the Enchanted Forest but they won't be covered in dirt and blood and won't be torn to pieces," he suggested and Emma looked as though she was going to slap him for putting her in charge of the queen's wardrobe.

"Where is Snow White?" She snapped and Henry shrugged and shook his head.

"I actually don't know. I came straight from school to see you but I didn't see her there today," he told her honestly and she gritted her teeth and took a moment to look around her to try and make sense of the building she was in. The world she was in. She was agitated and short tempered and Henry knew that any misstep would result in a repeat of what he had initially walked in on. So he tread lightly and spoke gently and truly just hoped for the best and relied on how obsessively he had studied the Evil Queen in his book eight years ago.

And finally she found herself with very few options and a need to know what was going on. Even if it was just with the intention of learning as much as she could so she could kill them all. They just had to take it one step at a time.

"Fine," she bit out sharply and then snapped her gaze to the shepherd and stepped around him on a path straight to the room she had woken up in.

"Kay, Emma, go," Henry urged quietly.

"Henry! I don't know what she is going to want to wear!" Emma snapped under her breath.

"Black leather, bright coloured silk, one of her less formal blazers, the tallest heels you can find, and some jewelry. An outfit that is just like...bold and sharp and bad ass," he told her as he started backing away from her and toward the room his mother disappeared in to.

"Henry!"

"The storybook is on the shelf above my desk in my room and the photo albums are all in the upstairs library. There are four of them and they are all the same on the outside."

" _Henry_!"

"Use magic to go there and back, be quick, and also your neck is covered in mom's blood, you should probably wash it off," he noted and then slipped inside the room with David following close behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

**This will not cover the Bed Sharing prompt designated for today but timing wise, I just couldn't slip it in to the story yet and have it make sense. But we'll get there ;) We are just gonna jump ahead to Regina Losing Magic first. And I may even post a third chapter by the end of the day today, we'll see. And because soooooo many of you are demanding more of Fate's Muse, I will do my best to write more for it lol!**

 **Happy reading!**

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Cleaned, dressed, healed with magic, and apparently dissatisfied by her short hair, the queen stepped out of the small bathroom with a fresh face of make up and long wavy hair pulled over one shoulder. She walked out with a scowl in their direction as she tugged at the three quarter length sleeve of her black blazer, it's silk lined cuff folded back on itself and it's black leather lapels suited perfectly for the sharp queen she was.

And where Emma had found it, neither David or Henry could say for they had never seen such an item of clothing in her closet, but the top she had selected was perfect to appease an Evil Queen. It was of a dark, blood red, matte silk that fell rather loose around her slim figure and had a less than modest sweetheart neckline accented with black leather that framed her breasts and the small ebony pendant hanging from her neck perfectly. The top and jacket were then paired with black leather pants and a pair of black patent leather heels that put her eyes almost in line with David's. But no matter the heels, his Regina would always be small and precious to him.

"Start talking," she commanded as she walked toward them. Henry looking completely unbothered by her appearance as he turned to his books while Emma looked confused and worried and the shepherd seemed to let his eyes linger a little too long and a little too tenderly. She merely scowled harder at him.

"Where do you want to start?" Henry asked as he sat himself on the hospital bed and began sorting through the photo albums.

"Does it matter?" She grumbled irritably but Henry was once again entirely unbothered and simply shrugged.

"Not really. But let's start with a recap on the Enchanted Forest and then get in to Storybrooke."

...

Snow frowned deeper as she looked at the clock behind the diner's counter. Regina was never late. And the odd time she thought she may be late, she always called or sent a text stating as much. But there had been no call and no text, no replies to the ones Snow sent to her either for that matter. It certainly wasn't like her to forget. But there she sat, alone in the diner, waiting for Regina to arrive for their weekly lunch.

"You can not possibly still be looking at the menu," Granny teased as she stepped up beside Snow.

"No," Snow laughed with a shake of her head, "no I am just waiting on Regina actually. She's never been late to any of our lunches and I can't seem to get ahold of her. I don't know which is more strange," Snow chuckled lightly but shrugged it off with a smile and looked up at Granny to find her face suddenly void of any playfulness.

"I-...I'm sorry, I just assumed that you would have been one of the first to know what happened this morning...I thought it odd you being here but I didn't want to bring it up in case you were trying to escape for a little while."

Frowning and worried enough for her stomach to churn, Snow shook her head, "what do you mean?"

"Regina...she...she was in a car accident early this morning," she told her and the girl's face went pale and still, "on her way to work, someone drove their truck straight in to the side of her car, there have been rumours that it was purposeful. It wasn't pretty, they had to cut her out of the car, she's been at the hospital all morning, no one has heard a word on her condition."

"That's-..." Snow shook her head, struck dumb with shock and panic as her heart raced and her stomach twisted, "is she alright? Is she alive?!"

"I don't know. She was unconscious when they pulled her from the car, that is all I know, there has been no news," Granny told her gently and in an instant, Snow was on her feet and running out of the diner.

...

Regina was baffled by the images strewn over the hospital bed. They were her, it was her face, her and the boy Henry from when he was but a newborn baby all the way through to his current age and appearance and there was no magic lacing any of them. And as time went on in the recorded pictures, her face grew happier and happier, far more relaxed and free of stress and worry and anger. She was happy in all of the images, even if she wasn't smiling.

But she didn't remember any of it. Didn't believe any of it.

They merely confused her further. None of them made sense. It irritated her, she couldn't understand any of what was going on or what she was looking at. For the images were of herself but she simply could not see herself finding such happiness from where she stood then. From what she knew and remembered then.

"Who took these images?" She asked as she picked one up of her and Henry playing a piano side by side and laughing as they did. He was older in the image, fifteen or sixteen perhaps, and while Regina didn't quite understand the method in which the images were gathered, she did understand that someone had to be operating the device that captured the memories.

"I took that one," David answered and she frowned and looked up at him, "I took most of them actually."

"...Why?"

"Well, its time now to get to that," Henry smiled nervously as he picked up the final book of photos and the queen watched him irritably and impatiently. Opening the book was going to shoot them in to a world of chaos directed by a furious Evil Queen and none of them were ready. Emma looked the most nervous out of all of them as her eyes settled on the book and her mind got lost in thought.

"What is in that book?" Regina demanded sharply and Henry watched her in silence for a moment. And nearly a moment too long for her patience.

"Our story," David answered gently and tried to prepare himself for her mighty temper.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" She snapped as she turned her head to look at him.

"This is gonna be kind of a lot to be hit with," Henry warned with a slight grimace that was all apologetic, "but it is the truth, and it is real, and-"

"Just open the damn book!" She bellowed as she thrust a hand toward him as a gesture for him to hand it over. Warily, he did surrender it and she carelessly and impatiently snatched it from his grasp. With one last irritable scowl at the boy, Regina turned her attention to the book as she opened it. And once she had, her brow furrowed and her lips fell in to a baffled frown.

For the first picture was of her and David. He was laughing with his eyes closed and she was grinning as her parted lips spoke in to his ear, her forehead pressed against the side of his head, her arms wrapped around his chest and back, his hands holding her forearm.

Then she turned the page.

The next photo was the pair of them once more. She was smirking at something, looking down out of the frame while David looked straight at her. With a look of love so tender and true it had her heart echoing in her ears.

Then she swivelled her head to the next page.

The pair of them were sitting on a chaise lounge, David kissing her shoulder as she sat between his legs with her back against his chest, a book in her hands, and a soft smile on her lips as she read.

Next page.

Her head thrown back in laughter, her eyes closed and a hand on her stomach while David was caught mid gesture with his eyebrows raised and a story leaving his smile.

Next page.

He had tackled her in a hug from behind. She was laughing again with her head pushed back in to his shoulder while he laughed against her ear.

Another page.

The pair of them walking hand in hand happy as could be.

The page beside.

David standing behind her with his arms wrapped around her waist and his chin rested atop her head as she cooked in her bare feet.

Next page.

A kiss. She was sitting but he had taken her head in her hands and tilted it back as far as it would go so he bend down and kiss her grinning lips, a kiss of mostly teeth but complete and utter joy.

The next image.

In the bright morning light she was crawling over him in her pyjamas, paying no mind to the papers in his lap as he sat in bed with his legs outstretched and his back against the headboard. Her smiling lips dragging up his throat as he smirked, seemingly trying focus on his work rather than laugh and give in to her.

Page after page after page, each one being turned faster than the one before as the most bizarre images met her eyes. It couldn't be, it was impossible. How could she possibly be with the shepherd prince? Of all people! How could she look so comfortable with him, so happy with him, so completely in love with him? It couldn't be.

It was ridiculous.

She loved Daniel and no one else.

Then the next page she turned had her stopping dead in her frantic page flipping.

For there she stood teary eyed and smiling in a beautiful wedding dress as David stood far closer to her than would ever be necessary to slide a ring on to her finger. And when her eyes snapped to the neighbouring page, she had her hands on his neck and jaw as she kissed him for the very first time as his wife.

She was frozen on the pages, unable to look away from either image as her heart started beating faster and faster and her mind spun quicker and quicker. There was no comprehending such a thing, there was no way to believe it, it was impossible, it didn't make any sense, and yet when she looked at the man in question he watched her with the same tender and loving expression he did in so many of the photographs she had just seen.

But it couldn't be true. She loved Daniel, she could never let him go, and had sworn she would never love another. She was the Evil Queen. She did not have a son, she did not have a husband, and that husband was most certainly not Prince Charming.

David could see the spiralling storm wreaking havoc in her. Her gaze was distracted when she looked at him but her mind was busy. Her muscles were tense, her eyes were wild, and he knew her temper was as easier to snap than a taut thread. And everyone was holding their breath because of it.

"How were these images made?"

"They were captured by a camera, just like all the others," Henry answered and she shook her head with her lip curled back in a snarl as she turned the page and was faced with more wedding photos.

"Impossible!" She hissed as she turned another page and then snatched a photo from it, her arms hanging over David's shoulders, his wrapped around her waist and back, their faces resting against one another, forehead to forehead and noses to cheeks, their lips both pulled in to a soft smile that made her heart sick.

"This is _not_ real!" She shouted furiously as she showed them the image, "this _never_ happened! This would _never_ happen! Never!" She shouted, her rage back in full force, "you all had me considering the boy, but _this_?!" She yelled as she threw the photograph at the shepherd and he tried to catch it, "this is absolutely obscene! How would you expect me to believe such a thing?!" She bellowed as she turned her back to the book and faced David straight on, "and what would such a story _possibly_ accomplish for you!? For _any_ of you?!"

"It is the truth, Regina, that is all," David told her gently and she did not take kindly to it.

"That is bullshit!" She shouted as she spun back to the books and sent her magic to throw them and every loose image flying across the room.

"It is not bullshit, Regina," David defended patiently and she whirled around to face him once more.

"You love me, shepherd?" She sneered, her voice quieter but even more threatening than before as she prowled toward him.

"Very much," he told her without hesitation.

"You want to fuck me until I am screaming your name?"

"Your son is present, Regina. As is my daughter. But yes, that has never been a doubt between us."

"You want to hold me and whisper sweet things in my ear? Promise me that everything will be okay?"

"Of course, Regina. I want nothing more than that right now."

"And what on earth makes you think that I would _ever_ reciprocate or want _any_ of that, shepherd?" She snarled as she stopped only a few inches from him, angry as hell.

"Because, my love, you have not taken off your wedding ring," he told her softly and watched confusion twist her furious face, "which means that there is still a part of you that knows it should be there. Still a part that _wants_ it to be there," he reasoned kindly, his voice full of hope and a tender plea for her to remember him. But she only frowned and lifted her left hand up in front of her face, her dark eyes focusing on the diamond that she had apparently previously paid no mind to.

And before she could react and rip it off her finger out of spite, an all too familiar voice was heard outside the door and down the hall. A voice that shot cold fear through Henry, David, and Emma and peaked the queen's interest all within a moment.

"Did anyone call her?" Henry asked and Emma and David shook their heads and looked at one another with the same fear while the queen forgot about their previous topic altogether and fell in to full on hunting mode. Her muscles softening with the familiarity of a task, the familiarity of a target.

"No," Emma replied quietly

"So she doesn't know that mom doesn't remember?" Henry pressed, his voice getting tighter and his words leaving faster as the queen turned her full attention to the empty doorframe that would soon hold Snow White rushing in to see if Regina was alright.

Then in an instant everything fell in to chaos.

Snow sprinted in to the room just as David left the queen's side to stop her from entering but he moved just a moment too late. The queen's magic slammed the door shut behind Snow as it simultaneously called Emma's gun from the holster on her hip and Snow's expression of relief that Regina was on her feet, transformed in to confusion and terror within half a second.

"Regina!" Emma shrieked as she tried to snatch the gun flying through the air.

"Mom! No!" Henry shouted but the very moment she had the weapon in her hand, she was pulling the trigger.

The loud bang rang through the room and her bullet hit its mark in Snow's shoulder just above her heart and she stumbled back a step in complete shock. But the queen didn't stop there. She shot again and hit Snow once more, again she fired and it hit David's arm as he tackled Snow to the floor. She pulled the trigger again and again, walking closer so she could see them better, pulling the trigger over and over again but none of the bullets hit their mark, they all stopped before they hit the infuriating couple on the floor, all stopped by magic. So she shot at them quicker but it didn't change.

Furious, the queen shouted and then spun around with her gun pointed at the blonde whose magic was saving the people she wanted dead.

"No!" Henry screamed and Emma gasped and flinched but when the queen pulled the trigger, no shot was fired.

Confused and even more furious that the blonde was still standing unharmed, Regina pulled the trigger again. And again and again but nothing happened and the blonde let out a huffed sigh of relief. "What the hell use is this thing if it runs out of- ah!" She shouted and threw the weapon at the blonde instead, causing her to release the magic protecting Snow and David so she could stop the weapon from hitting her right between the eyes.

"If you want a job done, you just have to do it yourself," she grumbled as she tossed the blonde out of her troubles with a flick of her wrist and did the same to David, throwing him against a wall with a grunt so she could get to Snow White.

"Mom! Stop!" Henry pleaded as he hurried to the end of the bed, unsure of what he could do to get her to stop without her disposing of him altogether.

"Snow _White_ ," she drew out with a crazed grin as she watched the blood pool around her and soak her shirt.

"Regina? W-what the _hell_ ," Snow breathed sharply, confused and in pain and shock, "you-...you _shot_ me?!"

"I am tired of playing with you and your games, Snow White," she purred as she got down on her knees and straddled her hips, bending forward at the waist so she could get right in her space while people banged and shouted on he other side of the locked door, trying to get in, trying to stop the massacre they were going to find when she was through with the charming family.

"What are you talking about?" Snow cried out softly as the pain in her chest and shoulder grew to be unbearable.

"She doesn't remember anything, Snow!" Henry called out desperately, "the last thing she remembers is being the Evil Queen!"

"Shit," Snow huffed under her breath as tears burned in her eyes. She was completely done for. And then Regina laughed so lowly that if Henry hadn't have said something, Snow would have drawn the conclusion herself that she was with the Evil Queen.

"Mom, please! Don't kill her!"

"I am not your mother, boy," Regina replied plainly as a twisted smile pulled at her lips and she traced Snow's face with her fingertips, "I have let this go on for _far_ too long, Snow White."

"Regina," Snow pleaded as she shook her head but the woman's eyes were crazed, just as they were back in the Enchanted Forest, "you are not this person anymore, you are good, you are my friend, Henry is your son, and David is yours. There is nothing more to take from me."

"I am this person, Snow White. I am not your friend, that boy is not mine, and David will die right along with you," she assured sweetly as her fingers dipped down to her pretty little neck as she tipped down further in to her space and whispered, "and there is _always_ more to take, dear Snow."

And then she laughed a chilling laugh and carefully wrapped her hand around Snow's neck as the girl shook her head and quickly wrapped a her hands around her wrist to try and stop her. "Goodbye, Snow White," she smiled with a nod of her head and then pushed all of her weight on to the hand around her throat and felt her skin shiver in delight at the way Snow's breath stopped and her nails dug in to her wrist hard enough to draw blood. Regina leaned down even closer, her grip tightening as she smiled down at her and Snow tried to kick her off.

"Mom!" Henry shouted but she didn't so much as acknowledge him. So he jumped off the bed and tried to push her off of Snow but she only threw him backward. His back hit the wall and winded him hard, left him bent over and coughing for breath as he tried to crawl back to her.

It was David that got her off though. He came back to his senses and stumbled to his feet and without a word, he wrapped his arms around Regina and lifted her off of Snow and slammed her to the nearest wall, disorienting her for a moment and leaving Snow bleeding and coughing on the floor. And he took advantage of the moment of disorientation and drew it out longer by pulling her face to his and kissing her. She gasped at the contact and he pinned her harder as his fingers slid in to her hair and he gave her no chance to gather her bearings. He kissed her hard and she kissed him back just long enough for Emma to come to and open the door and for Henry to get Rumple on the phone.

The doctors and nurses rushing in to the room snapped her back in to clarity though as they rushed to Snow's aid and she tore away from his kiss and tried to fight him off. But he tucked his face in to her neck and caught her fighting arms in a tight grip and kept her pinned to the wall.

"Let _go_ of me!" She bellowed as she thrashed but he was heavier than she was and couldn't get away.

"Let her go, Regina," he urged against her neck and she screamed and fought, kicking and thrashing, trying with all her might to get him off her as they quickly lifted Snow on a stretcher.

"She is _mine_!" She shouted and with a burst of magic, she sent David flying backward once more and made a break for the door. Emma, it seemed, had opened it with her magic and had made a point to make sure it stayed open and while Regina was more than ready to break her neck if she so much as tried to stop her from following Snow, the blonde actually stepped out of her way.

So Regina swung herself out in to the hall, her chest heaving as her heart raced and her mind was focused only on murder. The moment she spotted them running Snow down the hall, she thrust her arm forward to pull the girl back to her so she would land with her throat in her hand. But before her magic could leave her fingertips, a cuff was slapped on to her wrist and her magic would no longer come. Absolutely livid, she spun on her heels to face the fool who would dare do such a thing as restrict her magic and was met with the face of Rumplestiltskin.

"You," she snarled, her voice low and deadly as she prepared to attack him.

"You need to settle down, dearie," Rumple nodded but she was only riled up further.

"How dare you take my magic from me!" She bellowed as she stalked toward him and he stood his ground as calm as ever.

"It is not taken, it is merely blocked. Now let us settle you down," he nodded and she gnashed her teeth with more sharp words but before they could leave her tongue, he blew a puff of poppy dust in to her face. She was incapacitated within moments and it was Henry who sprinted out in to the hall just in time to catch her before she hit the ground.


	3. Chapter 3

**Just a quick little chapter, there will be more EC in the next chapter and I reeaaally want to get it finished and posted tonight but I make no promises. Enjoy!**

* * *

"No!"

"David, she is dangerous, you cannot take her home! She is going to kill someone! She needs to be locked up!"

"She doesn't have the use of her magic, Whale!"

"Well she's proven today that she is mighty handy with a gun! I'm sure she can be just as effective with a knife! Or even a pillow over your face in the middle of the night! She is the Evil Queen, for God's sake! She is dangerous!"

"And you think locking her up is going to encourage her to calm down and not hold a grudge?! You think she is going to be willing to try and remember, to try and get back on the right path if we just throw her in a padded room in the basement?!"

"David, I know you love her but you cannot take her home! Think about Henry! She could very well kill him too!"

"We've locked up the Evil Queen before, Whale, how well did that pan out!?"

"It worked just fine until you and Snow let her out again!"

"We are not putting her in another cage!"

"It will only be until we figure out a treatment plan for her!" He argued but was then grabbed by the white lapels of his coat and slammed backward against a wall.

"David!" Emma shouted furiously at the outburst but he didn't care. So she looked down at Henry sitting in the hospital bed holding his mother's hand. He was fully invested in the conversation they were having and didn't notice she had looked down at him which was fine, but what wasn't fine was when she glanced at Regina and found her wide awake watching the men argue as well. It sent a sharp chill of panic through her and when the woman blinked her eyes and looked her straight in the eye, Emma had never felt more uneasy. She had never been so scared of another person and their capabilities in her life.

Her gaze was so steady and still and analytic it made her heart skip and speed up, "David."

"You will _not_ put my wife in a cell, do you understand me," David snarled and the doctor clenched his jaw and remained silent. "Do you understand me?!" He bellowed as he lifted and slammed the man back against the wall.

"Fine! But if she kills anyone, that is on you!"

"David."

"She isn't going to kill anyone," he snarled and then shoved him away, "she is not injured, we are taking her home."

"This is a mistake," Whale pressed irritably, "a _huge_ mistake."

" _David_!"

" _What_ , Emma?!" He snapped in frustration and turned from the doctor to look at her but quickly found himself looking Regina right in the eye. "Regina," he breathed and Henry quickly looked over to her as well and squeezed her hand tighter. A gesture to which the queen turned her head and frowned at him for. "Come on, we are taking you home," he told her but she didn't move.

"David, I really don't think taking her home is a good idea," Emma whispered as she approached him and Henry tried to convince Regina to her feet.

"I will not lock her up, Emma. I couldn't do that to her. If you knew what she has been put through, you wouldn't lock her up either."

"But, David-"

"Emma, _please_ don't fight me on this. Everything will be fine."

"David, you are inviting the Evil Queen in to your home with Henry. She tried to kill us _all_ multiple times barely an hour ago, she is not the same person you woke up with this morning."

"Emma, the Evil Queen was still in Regina this morning, she has always been there and will always be there, Regina had just decided stop acting so violently on her impulses, she learned to control herself, not throw herself away."

"The fact still remains that _she_ hasn't," Emma insisted with a tilt of her head toward the brunette.

"So long as she is not provoked, everything will be fine," he promised and Emma scoffed, "there is nothing left to tell her, she has been made aware of everything, now she just has to think on it and make sense of it. There are no more bombs to drop on her," he reasoned and Emma pushed a hand through her hair with a sigh, "everything will be fine."

When she didn't argue, he nodded his head and turned his attention to Henry standing beside the proud and scowling queen. "Henry, you take the truck home, I'll take your bike. I'm pretty sure her majesty will tolerate your company far better than she will mine," he smiled softly as he handed Henry the keys to the truck and Henry huffed a quiet laugh of agreement out his nose and fished the motorcycle keys out of his pocket for David.

...

The drive was silent until they were almost home. She sat in the front seat with her attention focused out the window and Henry left her to her thoughts. It would be a lot to take in if the last thing she remembered was sitting in her castle in the Enchanted Forest.

"Why did David fight that doctor so adamantly to keep me from being locked up?"

Henry was a little startled to hear her voice and when he looked at her, she was turning her head to look at him. Her face was very stoic and serious, her eyes incredibly intense and demanding of an answer and Henry simply shrugged. "Because he loves you," he told her and her eyes rolled and she looked out the front window, "and he knows that locking you up would only make you angry. Make you feel like you were trapped again. And he doesn't want you to feel that way. Especially when you feel so out of place right now. He wants you to feel safe and free," Henry nodded as he slowed as he came up to the house and turned in to the driveway.

"Plus if there is even the slightest chance you start to remember things, it won't be because you are stressed out and locked in a padded room. It'll be because you are home and calm and perhaps triggered by something familiar. But most of all, I'm sure he did it because he couldn't stand the thought of you locked away again," Henry told her as he put the truck in park and pulled out the key as David pulled up behind them on the motorcycle.

"A lot has happened since you guys were in the Enchanted Forest. Everything has changed," he told her and she didn't move.

"I do not believe any of this to be true."

"Well it is the truth," Henry sighed as he sat back in to his seat with a playful edge to his small smile, "I am sorry to say that you are mayor of a town full of subjects who love you, you have a big beautiful house, you have a son who adores you, a husband who loves you more than anything, and friends who would do anything for you. Kind of a sucky life, don't you think?" He teased lightly and she scowled at him irritably. He only chuckled lightly and shook his head, "come on, your majesty, it'll be alright."

...

"Henry, have you seen your mother?"

"No, she's shut herself upstairs. Hasn't come down since we got home. I told her we would make her dinner but she didn't answer me when I told her it was ready," Henry shrugged a little as he twirled the pasta around his fork and David hummed shortly as he looked toward the stairs.

"How's Snow?" Henry asked and David shook his head with a raise of his eyebrows.

"Really good actually. Thank god. Whale got the bullets out in surgery and Gold healed her up good as new once she was out."

"Good. I thought for sure she was going to kill her. Kill both of you."

"Me too, kid, me too. Remind me to thank Emma later," he nodded and Henry laughed but it was more of a release of stress than anything.

"She's terrified of her. You can tell."

"Yeah well..." David shrugged and sat at the table across from Henry, "she thought she'd met the Evil Queen before. I kept trying to tell her she'd met no one of the sort. The Evil Queen is a terrifying person. Especially when you have a lot to lose," David nodded and it was Henry's turn to hum softly.

"How's your arm?"

"Fine. The bullet just grazed it. It's sore but it'll heal."

"Why didn't you get Rumple to heal it?"

"Snow was more important. This'll heal on its own just fine, not a big deal," he shrugged it off and then looked at Henry as he played with his food and frowned, "how are you doing?"

Henry shook his head in reply with a weak and pitiful laugh, "not great, honestly."

"Yeah...it's just been...a shitty day," David called it out bluntly and Henry laughed but it was a teary and tired sound that made David frown deeper. So he stood up and walked around the table to Henry, "come here, kid," he breathed and Henry stood up and turned to him so he could hug him tight and David hugged him back just as tight. "It'll be alright, Henry," he assured but the boy simply started crying.

"What if it's not?"

"Your mom's a fighter, she'll come out of it."

"But what if she doesn't? What if this is it? She made it out alive but what if that is it?"

"You've just got to try and believe that it's not, kid. Don't lose hope."

"I'm trying not to but you still have her, you still have someone that remembers who you are. Mom was the only person in the world that knew everything about me and now she's gone. To me it feels like she did die even though she's just upstairs. And looking through all those photos with her today only made it worse," he cried softly and the man he'd grown to call his father hugged him tighter. Which only had Henry hugging him tighter in return.

"I am sorry, Henry," David breathed and the boy cried again and it had tears burning behind his closed eyes, "we'll get her back, okay? We'll get her back together," he breathed and Henry cling to him as though his life depended on it.

"I miss her."

"I know you do. I miss her too."

...

Gently, David knocked on the door to his and Regina's bedroom but there was no reply. So he carefully turned the handle and pushed it open, wary of any weapons that may be thrown at his head for entering her space. But the only weapon he was greeted with was her sharp tongue.

"Is it customary in this town to enter a person's room regardless of permission granted?" She scowled from where she sat on the bed.

"Technically speaking, your majesty, it is my room too," he pointed out and her lip curled back in distaste as her attention fell back to the photographs splayed across the duvet around her, "I was just bringing you some dinner. You haven't eaten since breakfast and it was a small meal," he told her as he walked toward her.

"I'm not hungry."

"I beg to differ," he argued and she glared at him. But he ignored her and put her plate on the bedside table. "What are you looking at?" He asked as he looked over all the pictures strewn everywhere.

"Are you blind?"

With a small smile, David shook his head at her and took a deep breath and changed the subject, "Snow is alive by the way," he told her and she twitched irritably, "she's back at home and has firmly requested that not a word of what happened today is to reach the public and is to be kept between the hospital staff, myself, Snow, Emma, and Henry."

"Why would she request such a thing? Unwilling to maker her loyal followers aware that I nearly succeeded?" She sneered and David shook his head.

"No. To protect you. To protect you and the relationships you have made over the last few years. They are fragile things and Snow doesn't want the people to turn against you once more because of something that wasn't even your fault."

"No one made me do anything I didn't wish to do," she argued and David shook his head once more.

"I know. But you were hit by a truck this morning which left you with only half a life's worth of memories and that was not your fault. So as far as the general public knows, you were in an accident and walked away from it with nothing more than a spotty memory," he told her and she looked at him as though he was the one with a brain issue. "So if you go out tomorrow, you should be alright, no one should accuse you of any wrong doings. It should be just like any other regular day. People may be a little more concerned about your wellbeing and perhaps ask you how you are, but there should be no ill feelings or wary attitudes you have to navigate through."

"...What do you mean 'if I go out'?" She inquired with a frown and a forward shift of her head on her neck.

"I don't understand the question..."

"You are letting me leave the house?"

"Of course. You are not a prisoner here, Regina," he laughed lightly and she frowned deeper, "if we wanted you locked away, we would have left you in the hospital under Whale's care," he reasoned and she was baffled by the idea of being free, "just don't kill anyone. If you do then there really isn't a whole lot I can do to keep you out of a cell."

"Why are you letting me out?"

"Because I trust you. And I trust that once you see how people treat you now out there, you won't be all that inclined to kill them as you are now."

"This doesn't make any sense, shepherd," she snapped and he shook his head.

"I know. If you think it will be easier for you, you can pull Henry out of school and spend the day with him. I am sure he would love to spend the day with you."

"Why, because I am his mother?" She snarked bitterly and David frowned at her and there was a drawn out silence that followed before he answered.

"Regina, with the loss of your memory, he has lost the person most dear to him. He has lost his mother and she was the only person who has known him for his entire life. So I do hope that you can find it in you to make an effort to be kind to him and be gentle with his broken heart as you would hope Daniel would if he had lost all memory of you. I know you are capable of such kindness. So I ask that you try to be good to him. Even if you are good to no one else, be good to that boy. He adores you. And if you give him a chance, I think he will surprise you," he nodded and the queen crossed her jaw and dropped her eyes to the photographs of her and Henry scattered over the bed.

"Anyway...make sure you eat something, okay? Before it gets too cold. Henry made it, it's one of your favourite meals. Well...I guess you wouldn't know that but uh...I guess it'll be one of your favourites once you try it," he laughed a little and the woman looked up at him once more. "I'll leave you this room to yourself, I'll sleep down the hall in the guest bedroom. If you need me, I'll be there," he told her with a small smile and then turned to make his leave.

"Shepherd," she called as his hand found the door handle but he turned to face her at her call. "Being married, what does that entail?" She questioned with a lift of her chin and a slight turn of her head as she narrowed her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"Do I get to fuck you?"

Her blatancy caught him by surprise more than the inquiry itself and he had to look away from her for a moment before he burst out laughing before he looked back at her with an amused smirk and a nod of his head, "yes, your majesty, you do."

"Whenever I please?"

"Yes, Regina," he nodded again as his smirk pulled higher and her expression grew more contemplative as she tilted her head and looked him up and down.

"However I please?"

"Yes, Regina," he nodded once more with a light chuckle.

"Even as I am now? Supposedly lacking my memory and attempting to murder everyone in sight?"

"Yes, Regina," he laughed under his breath with another nod.

"Hmm," She hummed shortly and looked him up and down once more, her eyes lingering on his broad shoulders and thick arms and thighs, "that's all," she dismissed with a wave of her fingers and went back to looking at the photographs on the bed, searching for any hint of a lie, any remnants of magic left behind.

Breathing a laugh as he shook his head, David made his leave once more, "goodnight, Regina," he smiled but she didn't acknowledge him. So he closed the door behind him and made his way down the hall to the guest bedroom.


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm pretty sure I told you there would be more EC in this chapter but I just had far too much fun with Snow lol! So the next chapter will be FULL of EC and should definitely be posted before the end of the day today!**

* * *

Henry rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he wandered in to the kitchen and once his hands were down he saw his mother standing at the island with her back to him. "Oh, h-" he tried to greet but nearly fell backward on his ass when she whirled around with a knife in her hand and left it against his throat, "...hi mom..." he finished his greeting stiff with fear and wide awake as she looked him up and down with a scowl.

They stood in silence for a few solid seconds before she slowly withdrew the knife and allowed him stand up straight once more, "what are you you doing," she scowled and he rubbed a hand over his throat.

"I was just gonna make some breakfast actually...if that's alright with you?"

"...Fine."

"Cool," Henry nodded and then awkwardly walked around her, trying to avoid crossing any lines she may have put in place, "do you want anything? I could make you some coffee?"

"Why would I want coffee?"

"I don't know, you just usually have a mug of it in the morning. How about I make some and you can try it and if you don't like it, you can pour it on David?" He smirked a little and he could have sworn he saw the smallest smile tug at the corner of her lips. It had him laughing to himself under his breath as he turned his back to her to start on the coffee, putting water in the kettle and then the kettle on the stove, "I think you will like it."

Curious as to what he was doing, Regina walked toward him and peered over his shoulder. And when he glanced at her, she caught his eye and he smiled at her. It was odd to her, being smiled at. And a true and genuine smile. She couldn't even remember the last time someone was actually happy to see her. "You really do know me, don't you?" She asked and the boy smiled again.

"I really do," he told her with a smile and her dark eyes analyzed every piece of him.

"Hmm...I uh...I am sorry about the knife," she apologized awkwardly and the boy smiled again. Perhaps being kind to the boy as David requested wouldn't be such a terrible thing.

"It's alright. Believe it or not, it's actually not the first time you've had a knife to my throat," Henry chuckled lightly as he recalled running in to her in the Author's tale of her dabbling in banditry, "you're in an unfamiliar place and you're without your magic, I should have announced myself a little better. I just forgot for a minute that you aren't quite yourself. Or yourself as I know you anyway," he shrugged with a small smile at her as he reached for a mug and she watched him.

"You are a different boy, aren't you," Regina noted with a slight narrowing of her eyes and a lift of her chin.

"Well I guess that's what happens when you're raised by an Evil Queen," he smirked lightly and again, she didn't move or speak. Simply watched him in silence. So he turned his attention back to the coffee press and scooped some coffee grounds in to it. "I like your long hair by the way," he complimented as the kettle began to whistle, "it's really pretty."

"...Thank you..."

"You're welcome," he smiled as he poured the water in to the press, "so what are your plans for the day?"

"That is none of your concern," she snapped and Henry raised his hands in surrender.

"Alright, just a question," he defended as he turned around to face her and let the coffee work itself out, "you know you're not restricted to the house though, right?"

"David told me as such last night."

"Good. You should get out of the house then. Talk to some people. Maybe go to Granny's for lunch or something."

"Why."

"Well why not?" Henry countered with a shrug of his shoulders, "I mean, when was the last time you remember walking the streets without anyone cowering in fear or trying to kill you?" He asked and she remained silent. So he shrugged again, "you could go to Granny's and have some lunch or something, you could go to the library, or you could go to the ocean. You could go for a walk in the park or just walk around town. You could go to your office I guess and check that out. Or you could go riding," he raised his eyebrows but then tilted his head to the side, "but your car is in the shop and your magic is restricted...you probably shouldn't be driving anyway cause you probably don't remember how to drive. But you could get David to take you," he smiled and she was less than thrilled with the idea.

"No."

Henry breathed a laugh in response and then turned around to slowly press the coffee down in the French press, "if you give him a chance I'm pretty sure you'll come to find you like him," Henry reasoned but she didn't reply so he didn't push the matter any further.

"You can drive."

"Yes, I can drive."

"And if this place believes I am your mother, I can take you out of school," she nodded as she watched Henry pour the dark coffee in to a mug and add a little cream and a little sugar, "can I not?"

"Yeah," Henry smiled and tried his very hardest to rein it back from a full grin before he turned around and gave her her mug, "yeah, you could do that."

Without a word, Regina took the mug from the boy's hands and examined it carefully before she brought it to her nose to smell it. She was surprised to find that it smelled utterly beautiful. It soothed her and calmed her and for a moment she closed her eyes and could have sworn she had smelled it before.

Henry watched with a smile for for a moment, she looked like his mom again. Calm and thoroughly enjoying her morning coffee before anyone bothered her. It gave him hope that maybe she really could get her memories back. And when she finally took a sip there was a warm hum that tumbled in her throat that had Henry smiling just a little more. And when David wandered in to the kitchen, Henry tipped his chin up in greeting, "mornin'."

"Good morning," David greeted with a smile as he came around to stand next to Regina, careful not to get too close.

"How are you?"

"I feel like I am the one that was hit by a truck," David chuckled and Henry shook his head with a laugh, "I forgot how it feels waking up the morning after an Evil Queen attack," he joked lightly and Henry laughed again but Regina merely glowered at him. And then she threw her coffee at him.

David leapt backward with a gasp as scolding hot coffee soaked the front of him and then shouted at her in shock and anger, "Regina, what the hell!"

"You deserve it," she snarled and he scoffed as he looked back at her incredulously with his arms up and out to try and get his hot and sopping shirt away from his skin.

"What the hell for?!"

"You kissed me yesterday without my permission," she snapped and he scoffed again. Then she thrust her mug toward the boy and left no room for argument, "make another one."

"I just needed to distract you from killing, Snow! And for the record, you kissed me back!"

"Yes, well, that is neither here nor there," she dismissed with a shake of her head as she tugged at the hem of her blazer, "I also detest you," she told him and when she looked back up at him he was staring back at her with his arms still up and his mouth open, his expression one of utter disbelief and frustration. And then Henry carefully handed her a new mug of coffee and she took it without a word and brought it to her lips for a careful sip as she glowered at the shepherd.

...

Walking down Main Street was completely bizarre. There was not a single person that greeted her with disdain. Not even so much as a hint of dislike. Everyone smiled and waved or dipped their head in friendly greeting and quite frankly she didn't know what to do. She had left the house wanting to burn everything to the ground but with Henry at her side and the townspeople giving her absolutely no reason to lose her temper, she was left with so reason or desire to burn everything to ash. That in of itself was nearly enough to make her lose it though.

It couldn't possibly be a town-wide hoax. These fools were too stupid and too terrified of her to put on such a convincing act. But she also couldn't have possibly found herself married to the shepherd. Of all people. There would be no convincing her of such a thing. There had to be magic in those photographs. And if not the photographs then the woman in them borrowed her face through magic for them to be taken. Yes, that must be it.

"What are you thinking so hard about?" Henry prodded with a light laugh and she watched Michael Tilman walk past them after smiling bright and bidding them good day.

"I left his children for dead in the woods never to find him again nor he them."

"Yeah you definitely did," Henry nodded with a laugh, "we were all actually quite surprised by how quickly he got over it. Hansel and I are best friends now. He sleeps over all the time."

"The whole town has been hoodwinked haven't they."

"What? No," Henry laughed with a scrunch of his face as they walked up to the diner, "what makes you say that?"

"Why else would they be like this?"

"Friendly? Because you are friendly."

"I am not friendly."

"Well you can be sometimes. And just before the car accident, you were almost always friendly," Henry reasoned as he opened the diner door for her and she stepped inside, "oh good! We missed the lunch rush," he noted happily. The only other person in there was Archie and he acknowledged them with a smile and a nod before going back to his tea and newspaper.

"Well, as I live and breathe, aren't you a sight for sore eyes," Granny greeted with a relieved grin as she walked around the counter and up to Regina with open arms. "Thank god you are alright," she sighed happily as she pulled her in to a hug and the woman tensed and awkwardly returned it. Then Granny pulled away with her hand's on the woman's arms just below her shoulders and was greeted with a confused scowl while Henry bit back a laugh, "what? Is something wrong?"

"Let go of me," Regina requested, trying her best to keep a cool and level head and the old wolf let go of her instantly.

"Granny, can I talk to you for a sec?" Henry smiled as he stepped forward.

Granny moved to follow him after looking Regina over once more only to conclude that something was off. And once he had pulled her to the side, Granny looked back toward the woman examining her diner with flexing fingers and tense posture, "is she alright, Henry?"

"Well...mostly...we aren't telling too many people the truth so we can give her her best chance at recovering and not burning every bridge she's built over the past few years. But I am going to tell you because you aren't going to spread it like wildfire and will probably and hopefully stand in her corner."

"What is it, Henry?"

"Physically, mom is totally fine. But mentally...she doesn't remember anything past barging in on Snow and David's wedding and getting ready to cast the Dark Curse," he told her quietly and Granny stood with a frown as she worked through what exactly that meant.

"She thinks she is still the Evil Queen."

"Yes."

"Well she is remarkably civil."

"She has her moments. They seem to be growing more frequent."

"I hugged her, Henry."

"She's having a good day," Henry reasoned and Granny's voice then formed the words he knew were inevitable.

"Henry, what is she doing out here. If she really thinks she's the Evil Queen, you aren't going to make any influence if she decides she is going to wreak havoc. No one will."

"Yeah, we all figured that out yesterday," Henry nodded and Granny's point only grew more plain, "but she doesn't have magic now! Rumple put that cuff on her that blocks her use of magic. So she's not as dangerous as she could be," he defended and Granny merely stood there with her eyebrows raised and her arms folded, "Granny, we are just trying to make her feel as normal as possible so she can learn straight off the bat that she can just be herself, that no one is going to hurt her and she doesn't need to hurt anyone," he reasoned and Granny sighed, "please, Granny, she's doing really well so far. Especially when compared to yesterday."

"That's because she's plotting, Henry," Granny sight back lightly under her breath and when Henry opened his mouth to object, Granny lifted her hand and turned back to the queen with a smile, "alright, Queenie," she called and the woman looked back at her with a frown and displeased eyes. Poor thing, the world just wouldn't leave her and her efforts alone, "what'll it be? Your usual?"

"...Why not," she replied with a feigned smile and the old wolf smiled back at her with a nod and then asked Henry the same question. But her attention was caught by the bell ringing above the door as it opened and the blonde walking through it. Emma.

"Sheriff," Granny greeted with a smile, "what can I do for you?"

"David sent me to pick up lunch," she smiled and then looked to Henry with a curious look for he should be at school, "hey kid."

"Hey mom," he smiled and then tipped his head toward Regina behind her.

At the nod of the boy's head, Emma looked behind her shoulder and felt her heart jolt in fear at the sight of Regina. Standing tall and proud and making it look easy. As though it was second nature to her to be a cold and cruel force. "Oh...hi, Regina, I didn't expect to see you here," Emma pushed a smile and the woman looked her up and down and then blinked her dark eyes back up to hers, "right," she breathed and then looked away and tensely watched Granny wrap the sandwiches, just itching to get out of Regina's company. And then all their attentions were turned to the back of the diner and neither herself or Henry could believe Snow's incredibly poor timing as she walked in from the back door.

"Hi Granny, I said I'd help Markus bring in your food delivery, just wondering where you wanted the-..." Snow stopped dead in her tracks when she laid eyes on Regina and the whole diner fell utterly silent. The only one who was confused was Archie. Henry was staring at her wide eyed and she could practically hear Emma asking the world if it was serious and Granny looked incredibly wary of what was going to happen next.

And Regina looked quite ready to pounce in for the kill with her dark eyes so intensely focused on hers. It brought a small and nervous laugh to her lips as she lifted her hands and spoke warily, "Regina," she started but didn't get out another word before Regina set chase, gracelessly pushing a chair out of her way with a screech of metal against linoleum as Snow spun on her heels to run out the way she came. But her path was blocked by stacked boxes of food that Markus had brought in so she turned again, sharply, nearly falling as she did and Regina was right behind her.

"Regina!" Snow shrieked as she scrambled to her feet again and Regina growled and pushed the chairs out of her way with more metal scraping against the linoleum.

"I am going to _kill_ you, Snow White!"

"Mom!" Henry shouted as he watched her chase Snow like a rabid dog while Emma tried to cut her off to protect Snow, "Mom, _stop_!"

Regina dodged Emma with ease and then threw her hand toward Snow only to shout furiously when her magic didn't come. So she continued her pursuit around the diner, shoving chairs out of the way as Snow threw them behind her to try and stop her.

"Regina!" Snow pleaded as she leapt over to the other side of Granny's counter and turned to face the raging queen just on the diner side of the counter, prowling and stalking her every move, "let's just talk for a minute, I'm sure we can come to some sort of understanding, I-"

"No more talking!" Regina shouted and Snow's shoulders dropped in defeat in time with her panted exhale. And then her snarl pulled higher as she pointed a finger at her, " _you_ die _today_ ," she promised and then launched herself over the counter, bracing her weight on her hands as she swung her legs over and proceeded to shove Granny to the side when she stood between her and Snow.

"Seriously?!" Emma protested as Snow sprinted off once more and Regina swung herself back over the counter to cut her off, "in those shoes?!" She motioned to the woman's stilettos that left her completely unhindered in her chase and Emma started running after Regina to try and stop the madness.

"Stop _running_!" Regina bellowed as she slid in front of the door to block Snow's retreat.

Snow skidded to a halt and barely got herself turned around and running the other way just before Regina caught her. She could hear her heels on the linoleum, the screeching of the chairs, and everyone's shouting for her to stop trying to kill her to no avail. Her heart was pounding and her chest was heaving, she hadn't had to run for her life in years and even with Emma trying to get to Regina, Snow wasn't convinced she was going to make it out of this one. Her only saving grace was that Regina no longer had access to her magic.

"Regina! We are friends!" She insisted as she tried to put a table between them but Regina played no such game of cat and mouse and just kept running at her and left Snow with no choice but to keep running herself.

"Never!" Regina growled and when the blonde took a grip on her arm and yanked her to a halt, Regina picked up a chair with her free hand and swung it around as she spun, using her momentum to nail the blonde upside the head with the chair.

"What the _fuck_!" Emma shouted furiously as the queen got away and her ears rang while she bent over forward and her vision went went shaky and distorted and her head ached with a whole new kind of pain.

"Come _here_!" Regina shouted as Snow jumped up on to a table and turned to face her.

"Regina, I swear to god, we are friends! We have lunch every week! It's been _decades_ since the Enchanted Forest! We've moved on! You took David from me and married him and I was angry as hell for a long time over it but now we are friends! We have lunch, we go for coffee, we go on walks!"

"And they say _I_ am the one speaking nonsense!" Regina growled and then sharply yanked the table forward and left Snow fumbling backward to try and catch her balance only to fail and have to jump off the table to keep herself from falling off it. And while she got her footing, Regina whipped herself around the table and was back on Snow's heels as she ran for the door.

Furious and tired of chasing the infuriating girl, Regina picked up another chair and threw it as Snow's back. She fell to the floor with a shout of pain and rolled on to her back with a grimace, "I told you to stop running," Regina snarled as she stalked up to Snow still laying on the floor.

"Did you just throw a _chair_ at me?!" Snow winced as she pushed herself up to scoot herself away from Regina's approaching footsteps.

"Shut up," she scolded with a snarl as she followed the pathetic princess practically crawling on the floor.

"Granny, no!" Henry shouted and Emma halted her dizzied attempt to focus and get back to Regina and instead snapped her head toward granny and shouted too.

"Seriously, Granny, _don't_ -!"

The arrow from her crossbow zipped through the air toward Regina but it never hit her. Without missing a beat or pausing her steps, she twirled a chair around in front of her and the arrow hit its back dead centre, right where her thigh would have been had she continued at the stride she had been taking. But she met no such fate, her timing having been impeccable, as though her magic was not cut off at her wrist. And instead she merely snatched the arrow for herself from the chair and continued on her path toward Snow without so much as a glance toward the rest of the company in the diner.

The sight of the arrow twirling around Regina's slender fingers had Snow finally managing to push herself to her feet. And once she was up she took a page out of the queen's book and picked up a chair to shield herself but even with its legs pointed at Regina, the queen didn't seem bothered by the gesture.

"Regina, stop, okay, no one needs to get hurt, no one needs to die!"

"No one but you," Regina replied coolly as she kept walking forward and Snow kept walking backward.

"Regina, put the arrow down," Emma instructed firmly but kept a safe distance away from her.

Without looking away from her target, Regina laughed lowly, "or what? You'll shoot me again?"

"I don't want to have to."

"Don't forget I now know exactly how many bullets it carries. I will not be so wasteful the next time it is in my hand," she noted in a not so veiled threat and Emma fell silent.

"Regina, please, let's just talk for a minute, we can talk and-" her focus was disrupted when she caught her foot on a chair laying on the floor. But the momentary lapse in focus was all it took for Regina to take her chance and attack and Snow suddenly found herself being shoved backward, Regina's grip around the legs of the chair until Snow's back and head hit the wall and the top edge of the back of the diner chair hit her in the base of her throat and left her without breath.

And then the chair was thrown aside and Snow truly had never realized how strong Regina was. She had never fought her so physically before and the woman was always so proper and refined and she was coming to learn she was very much at a disadvantage after being a simple school teacher for so many years.

But just before Regina could plunge the arrow through Snow's heart, her arm was pulled away by Emma and without a moment of thought, Regina tossed the arrow in to the air for her left hand to catch as she spun around. Emma was welcomed with a snarling queen and a sharp arrowhead swinging at her that she just barely dodged and without a moment to waste, Snow took advantage of the queen's back finally being turned to her.

Snow jumped forward and kicked out the queen's knee as she twisted her right arm behind her back and in one seamless movement, Emma caught her arrow wielding left in her handcuffs and yanked it behind her back to cuff her right in them as well and Regina shouted in utter fury as she thrashed and kicked and Emma held her tight and Snow ripped the arrow from her grip.

"Get out of her so she can stop trying to kill you," Emma demanded quickly, leaving no room for argument. Snow only glanced once more at Regina before conceding with a nod and ran out the back door again.

"Release me!" Regina bellowed and Emma laughed on her scoff.

"Yeah, I'll get right on that, your majesty," she nodded with a heavy sarcasm and shoved the woman in to a walk back toward Henry and she hissed furiously in response while Emma kept her arms twisted behind her back, ensuring she was as uncomfortable as possible to deter her from trying anything more. Her own muscles were shaky with fear though over having her so close and she really and truly hoped that that cuff around her wrist was strong enough to keep back her volatile magic.

"Mom," Henry huffed with a drop of his shoulders and she turned her proud head to him with a scowl, "you can't _kill_ people," he reminded in exasperation.

"I haven't," she snapped back and Emma stood her next to the counter.

"You are trying pretty freaking hard!" Henry and she scowled at him. And it was only then that Archie reminded everyone he was still in the diner and played witness to the complete fiasco.

"Um... _what_ just happened?" He asked warily, completely and utterly confused by what he had just seen.

"I am trying to kill Snow White, you daft idiot," Regina snapped harshly, "what the hell did it look like?!"

"O-okay then," Archie replied quickly, entirely taken aback by the viciousness in her tone.

"I'll tell you later Archie, okay? Just a minute," Henry told him and then turned back to his mother who stood tall and furious and proud even with her hands cuffed behind her back and Emma standing behind her shoulder to ensure she didn't run off.

"Henry, I am taking her to the station."

"What, why?!"

"She just tried to kill Snow, Henry! She's dangerous!"

"She's not dangerous to anyone but Snow! She was doing really good all the way up until now!"

"And what is to stop her from hunting Snow down until she finally succeeds in killing her, Henry?! I am taking her to the station, end of story! David can deal with her!"

"Well can you at least cuff her with her hands in front?!"

"And give her the chance to throw the chain around my neck and strangle me to death?!" Emma exclaimed with a furrow of her brow and a tuck of her chin, "not a chance!"

"Come on, she wouldn't do that!" Henry defended and when they both looked to Regina she had her lips pursed and her eyebrows raised as she looked to her feet with a crossed jaw, a very clear statement that she actually would do such a thing and had already considered it. An expression to which Emma gestured to with more flare than necessary as she raised her eyebrows and then let her hand fall and slap against her thigh.

"Okay, _fine_!" Henry relented in exasperation, "but at least take her out the back!"


	5. Chapter 5

**Cutting that promise for a double update day a liiiittle close but I made the deadline ;) enjoy!**

* * *

David lifted his attention from his desk at the sound of approaching footsteps and was absolutely helpless against the smile that pulled at his face when Emma steered a handcuffed and entirely unimpressed Evil Queen in to the room with Henry trailing behind them. He tried with all his might to hide such a grin but it was to no avail and he looked up at the clock on the wall, "well...you lasted much longer than I had actually expected, your majesty," he teased and she scowled harder at him as Emma gave her one final push in to the side of his desk.

Long hair pulled back in to a beautiful and recently tousled ponytail over her shoulder, a cobalt blue shirt with the few buttons down the neckline left undone, a black blazer, black jeans, and black stilettos. And blood red lips he wished would smile at him. Her walking in mad as hell and handcuffed was such a ridiculous spin to their everyday life that he couldn't help but laugh over it even when he knew it had more than likely come from far less than ideal circumstances.

He just loved her and knew her and really, she wasn't all that different from the woman he married. She was just rough around the edges and had a far shorter temper. "And what did her majesty do to earn such treatment?" David inquired with a light laugh as he sat back in his chair.

"Tried to kill Snow. Again," Emma answered as she walked around the brunette, "and me. Again."

"Only because you tried to stop her from killing Snow," Henry defended and Emma scrunched her face at him.

"What kind of an argument is that?!"

"The truth!"

"It is the truth," Regina deadpanned and Emma scoffed furiously.

"Whatever, I don't have the patience for this. Deal with your wife, David, Henry and I have to go talk to Hopper and explain why exactly his afternoon tea was interrupted by Regina tearing apart the diner to get to Snow," she waved off and left the station in a huff.

David watched her go with a slight spin of his chair as Henry hurried after her to defend his mother's name to Archie. Soon enough he was left in silence with his wife and he looked to her with a smile as her hip leaned against his desk and a scowl on her beautiful lips. He sat there and admired her for just a little longer as he patiently awaited her to remember him and when she didn't, he stood from his chair and snatched the set of keys from his desk and walked behind her.

"You know, you and Snow really are friends in this area of time," he told her as he gently took her wrists in his hands and slid the key in to the handcuff.

"I want her dead," she snapped with a slight turn of her head over her shoulder.

"I know. But we aren't going to let you kill her."

"Why not?"

"Because if you ever remember the life you had before the accident you would be absolutely devastated to learn you had killed her," he told her and she shook her head as her one hand was released and he moved to the other, "that and people kind of like having her around," he teased lightly as her other hand fell free and he walked back around to his desk to put the cuffs and keys in his top drawer. Away from her. Just in case. He didn't need to find himself cuffed in the station and her running off to kill Snow.

She watched his every move with eyes that soaked in every detail and rubbed her red wrists with her hands. Her mind was filled with puzzles she couldn't solve and it had him smiling once more as he sat back down in his chair and nodded his head at her, "you have a question."

"How could we possibly be married?" She shook her head incredulously.

"Well we walked up to the aisle, said our vows, put the rings on, said 'I do', and-"

"You know damn well that is not what I meant," she snapped and he smirked.

"It started as an affair, Regina," he chuckled softly and she listened with her arms folded over her chest. "It was tender and kind before it was ever physical. Right after the curse broke, Rumple sent a wraith after you and by the end of the night, the wraith, Emma, and Snow ended up travelling through a portal to the Enchanted Forest. You and I nearly killed one another almost daily for the following weeks but then you really started trying to be better. For Henry. You wanted him to come home to you, you wanted him to choose to be with you.

So you stopped using magic, you fought the darkness ruling your heart and I couldn't tell you when it happened, but suddenly we found ourselves dependent on one another. We'd still fight practically to the death every now and then but we would also have one another's back. We started working together, making decisions together, taking care of Henry when the other couldn't.

And then one day you had to use magic. And the results devastated you. I went to your house that same evening to check on you and it was the first time I truly saw you as human. And I could no longer look at you any different than that. You were heartbroken and when I offered my support you took it and clung to it and I didn't know it then but as I held you that evening, it was the moment I decided to love you.

I don't know when you decided to love me and you are incapable of telling me now. But I think it was when you put me under a sleeping curse so we could bring Snow and Emma home. Which is another story for another time. But when Snow woke me with True Love's Kiss, and I looked over her shoulder to you, you could not look me in the eye. And you wouldn't look me in the eye for weeks after that, you avoided me like the plague. Until I walked in to your office and gave you no choice but to do so.

Things had not been the same with Snow from the moment she had returned. And I tried so hard to let things settle and to make them the same. But I just couldn't. And I couldn't figure out why until I walked in to your office unannounced and met those brilliant dark eyes of yours," he shook his head fondly and then looked up at the queen standing in front of him.

"They weren't the same because I had fallen in love with you. And when I asked why you were avoiding me you denied it and we fought until we were both in tears and you screamed at me that it was because you loved me and couldn't watch me with Snow. I remember feeling just so completely relieved. Like this huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders and the blindfold covering my eyes had finally been lifted. And then I kissed you for the very first time and, my sweet and tender Regina, you kissed me back and it was the best moment of my life second only to the day you became my wife. We fell in love slowly and then all at once," he told her and felt teary over the memory because he was truly the only person in the world that remembered such a treasured moment.

"What a touching story," Regina deadpanned but would be lying if she said her heart didn't warm over the tale. David merely smiled at her with a slight shake of his head.

"I hope one day you remember it," he breathed gently and she her expression didn't change.

"And Snow? She told me today that she was livid over the supposed event of you and me. If the tale is how you've told it, when did she learn of it?"

"As both a blessing and a curse, she walked in to your office to thank you for your efforts in saving her and Emma just as we parted from our kiss and drew one another in to a hug that was far too intimate to be interpreted as anything but what it was, even if our kiss hadn't been seen. I think what hurt her the most was that I didn't follow her out of that office. I stayed with you instead. You got mad too and we fought and you insisted I was a fool and that I needed to go back to Snow and once you had thrown everything you had at me and I stood my ground in your office, you conceded and kissed me again. And we never left one another's side after that," he told her and was just overjoyed that she was listening. Because with her hands free, she could very easily just take a pen or the pair of scissors from the mug on his desk and stab him to death with it.

But she simply stood quiet and listened, soaked in every word.

"How long am I to believe we have been married?"

"Well I really hope you _have_ lost your memory just in case I get our anniversary wrong," he joked with a raise of his eyebrows as he sat up straight in his chair and was utterly thrilled when she gave him an honest and amused smile. It had him laughing and she had to look away from him to try and steel her face, "you are a touchy and stubborn little thing so I had to get my timing just perfect when I asked you and that took a little over a year and then when I did ask you, you asked what took me so long and in that moment I wanted to throttle you," he laughed and she shook her head with the remnants of a smile, "that was almost six years ago," he recalled fondly and the woman on the other side of his desk watched him through narrow eyes.

But just narrow with thought as she considered his story with subtle nods of her head. He simply waited patiently for her to work through what she had heard.

"You really do believe that whole story, don't you?" She inquired and David smiled kindly at her.

"I lived every moment of it, your majesty," he promised and she tilted her head and looked him up and down.

...

Given her options, Regina found herself quite content to wander the sheriff's station in David's company. He answered phone calls and worked through paperwork, answering her questions as she came upon them. It was strange to be in his company, to be in anyone's company in this town, and not be given a reason to hate them and kill them on the spot. Quite frankly, she didn't know what do to with herself after almost an entire day of it.

Everyone had been friendly, everyone had been happy to see her, it was exceptionally bizarre. Snow was the only one she had felt inclined to kill and even she had tried to be friendly and never once fought back. Had only aided Emma in restraining her before being sent off. It was inconceivable when not too long ago she was fighting a war upon the back of her black stallion.

But eventually she did run out of things to look at and her eyes began to linger on the shepherd king. His large build, thick arms, an ass she couldn't help but daydream about digging her nails in to. She wandered closer, her hand holding her wrist behind her back as she circled around his desk, her dark eyes pondering what it would feel like to have his hands on her. They were large and strong and the thought had shivers shooting down her spine.

And then her eyes were back on his arms and his broad shoulders and she thought about how little effort it would take for him to lift her, carry her, hold her. She would be like nothing more than a paperweight to him. And on her second circle around him when he looked up from his desk and caught her eye, she held it for a moment as she continued waking and then her gaze fell to his lips.

He had already kissed her and it had offered her enough to halt her efforts of killing Snow for a few moments. It made her wonder what would happen if she were to invest her full attention in to him and he to her.

"What are you doing?" David frowned slightly as he watched her prowl circles around him. Her steps slow and even and her dark eyes analyzing every piece of him as if she were a lioness deciding on her lunch.

"Looking at you."

His brow furrowed at her reply as she stepped around behind him and he swivelled his head to catch her eye when she came back in to his line of sight, "why?"

But she never did come around from behind him. Instead her steps stopped right behind him and he turned his head back to the other side to see if he could catch a glimpse of her there but he couldn't. And then her hands were slowly sliding up and over his shoulders and he frowned deeper in wary confusion as one hand continued down his chest and the other cut across it to slide up his neck and jaw to turn his head further until he was met with her warm breath against his cheek.

"Because I want to fuck you, shepherd," she told him and dipped her head down, dragging her lips over his jaw before she nipped at his neck and followed through with a kiss.

It caught him by surprise for he didn't expect she'd be willing to do such a thing so soon. She had thrown coffee at him just that morning after all. But her her voice shot heat straight through him and he did not need to be told twice. "Well, in that case," he nodded as her lips left a second kiss on his neck and he spun his chair so he was facing her and pulling her hips to him as he stood.

He gave her a moment to change her mind before he kissed her. With their bodies pulled flush and her arms draped over his shoulders, he hovered over her lips to give her a chance to stop him. But she didn't. So he kissed her. Tentative at first but when she did not hesitate to kiss him back, he threw caution to the wind.

He kissed her as queen of her caliber should be kissed. Hard and deep and passionate, his hands pulling her body closer to his as her slack arms wound tight around his head and shoulders, her fingers raking through his hair. It felt so good to kiss her again, so good to have her body pressed to his, to have her in his arms again. And he let it show.

His hands wandered her figure, appreciating every curve as though it were the first time he had felt it. Then he turned her, pushing her backward until her thighs hit his desk and she was forced to sit atop it. Papers and pens were pushed from its surface but he didn't care, only kissed her harder and revelled in the moan that left her open lips as her legs wrapped around him. Then his hands were on either side of her head, holding her to him while she tugged his navy blue button up from his jeans.

Her hands were warm against his skin as they wandered up his back and his side, the fabric bunching up around her wrists as he tipped her head backward in his hands and moved his mouth to her neck and jaw. Biting, sucking, playing just a little more rough than he ordinarily would, leaving red marks in his wake as she moaned and dug her nails in to his skin.

He wanted to ask her if she wanted to go somewhere more private, somewhere with a locked door and less windows, somewhere with less potential for human traffic walking in on them. But he also knew that if he interrupted such a fiery woman's arousal he may just lose his head. He would just have to do his best to keep most of their clothes on in case they were walked in on. However, he was at the complete mercy of his queen and her desires.

And when his fingers slipped beneath the silky hem of her bright blue shirt and he found the soft skin beneath, he wanted nothing more than to rip it right off her. But he busied himself with yanking the blazer from her shoulders as he found her mouth again and she fought the gesture only because her hands were sliding in to the waist of his dark jeans and digging in to his hip and ass.

With a frustrated huff, she succumbed to his persistence and pulled her hands away and helped him toss her blazer aside but before it even hit the floor, her hands were pulling at his belt. Her breaths were sharp and shallow against his lips, her steady composure entirely lost as he tugged her closer to him by her hips so she was perched right on the edge of his desk and she could feel his hard cock through their jeans. She moaned at the feeling, her teeth biting hard on his bottom lip as she rocked herself closer and slid her hands back in his pants, one hand clawing at his ass and the other over the side of his thigh, urging him closer.

In a practiced move, he popped open the button on her jeans with one hand and pulled down the zipper so he could pull them off. Along with her panties he pulled them over the curve of her ass, down her thighs, and off her calfs, her shoes kicked off to allow him to toss her clothing to the floor and pull her close again. Then they broke their kiss, their foreheads pressed against one another's as they looked down to pull his cock out of his jeans and slide it against her, feeling and enjoying her heat and slickness and the way her breaths came out in moans and whimpers before he slid inside her.

She moaned louder at the sensation, her head tipping backward just enough for her parted lips to graze the corner of his mouth and his cheekbone as her fingers dug in to him once more, in to his ass and hip. "Fuck me," she breathed, an unnecessary command as she rolled her hips to a better angle and he wasted no time in rocking his hips in to her. She hissed and moaned, her teeth scraping down his jaw before she bit down on it and left him moaning right along with her.

With his hand on her thigh he pulled her leg higher up his hip and fucked her harder, his thrusts now audible in the empty office. She moaned louder, her voice bouncing in time with his movement, her hands pulling open the buttons of his shirt and her mouth caught in another kiss. He had her mind buzzing in pleasure and her body warming with even more. He didn't play around, he got straight to the point, fucking her hard and overwhelming her with his body and presence, assuring that every piece of her was touched and paid attention to.

It had her head spinning in the best way as her breaths grew even more shallow and he pushed her backward further on to his desk. Further and further until more things were carelessly pushed to the floor and she laid flat over the short width of his desk, moaning and swearing as he fucked her relentlessly.

Then she broke the kiss and let her head hang off the edge of his desk, let herself hang upside down as one hand shot out to take a grip of the corner of his desk to keep herself from getting fucked right off the furnishing. With her mouth out of reach, his moved to the base of her throat, his teeth biting through his hot and heavy breaths, his tongue tasting her collarbone, and his lips sucking the tops of her breasts as he moaned and she cried out.

She was a picture of ecstasy with one foot on the floor and the other leg hooked tightly around his hip as she draped herself over his desk and he loved it. One hand digging in to the back of his neck and pulling at his hair while the other gripped on to his desk, her moans and cries of pleasure filling his office. She was perfect.

He pulled at the neckline of her shirt and the black lace bra, forcing it down so his teeth could sink in to her breast, then a little lower so his tongue could flick over her pebbled nipple. Her back arched off his desk with a particularly sharp cry and he slid his hand to the small of her back and kept her hips and spine at the angle he knew she loved. Within moments she was writhing beneath him.

Her hips twisted and rocked but he was adamant on keeping her right where she was and her fingers pulled harder at his hair while the others kept a white knuckled grip on the corner of his desk. Her moans were laced with whines and whimpers and when he bit down on her breast once more and sucked hard enough to leave a mark, she hissed and hugged her leg tighter against his side and her exhale came as a loud groan that had him moaning against her and digging his nails in to her back and her thigh.

She was close, he could tell by the twisting of her hips, the careless and needy grabbing of her fingers, the higher pitch to her moaning, he knew her, he loved her, and as he kissed the valley between her breasts she came undone beneath him. She came hard and he took it as the perfect opportunity to fuck her harder, holding her just so as he pounded in to her and she cried out louder and pulled her head up so she was face to face with him. Her lips grazing his, parted as she cried and shouted, her eyes closed, her brow furrowed, and her body quivering. Convulsing with each wave of her orgasm as it hit her and made her scream louder. And he only slowed once he came inside her.

And even as he slowed his pounding to a lazy rhythm, she still twitched and twisted beneath him, moaning and rolling her head back down off the edge of his desk. So he pressed wet kisses down her throat and chest, his hand sliding from her thigh to her side, slipping beneath her silky shirt so both his hands could wander her figure. He revelled in her panted breaths and as he slid himself out of her, he pulled her up to him. He spread a hand between her shoulder blades and took her wrist in his other and pulled her upright.

She followed without a thought to resist and sat tall upon his desk with her face scant inches from his. Just far enough away that he could focus on those dark eyes of hers. Eyes that were blown out and glazed with arousal as she looked at him and then to his mouth. Then she kissed him without a moment to waste. Her arms wrapped around his head and neck and his pulled her in by her waist, her shirt bunching around his wrists as he felt her.

She kissed him long and slow and when he tried to bury his hands in her hair but was stopped by a ponytail, he tugged the band out of her hair. She laughed lowly against his lips as his fingers tangled themselves in to her hair and the sound only had him burying them deeper as he pushed her head back with his kiss.

Then her arms unwound from his neck and her hands slid around his sides to his back, loving every dip and rise of every muscle she crossed paths with, every muscle that moved as he used his whole body to kiss her. And then she stopped the kiss with a slight upward tilt of her chin when he broke his kiss for breath. And while he listened to her silent cue and stopped, he did not go anywhere.

He stayed right where he was and she bumped the tip of her nose against his as they breathed the same breath and uncharacteristic of her nature, her fingertips softened over his back and she began tracing invisible lines and patterns over his skin. "Perhaps I can see why a girl would keep you around," she purred on a sigh and felt her heart jump in delight when he breathed a laugh against her lips.

"Glad to hear it," he nodded once and felt his heart soar at the amused and happy hum he got from her in reply for a sound like that could only come from a smile. And even though he couldn't see it, he knew it was there and that made him utterly thrilled. "Happy to be of service, your majesty," he teased and she hummed again, short and playful, her lips pursed in a smirk and her eyebrow raised as she bumped the side of her nose in to his.

God, he adored her. And he wished he could tell her as much but he just couldn't without spooking her away. So he happily bent to her needs and detangled his fingers from her thick and silky hair only to smooth it down and press a firm kiss to her lips, one that lingered until she sighed against his lips. And then he parted from it and gave her one final kiss, sweet and quick and chaste, leaving her with a smile he had yet to see on any Evil Queen. One that had him grinning at her in return as he stepped away from her.

And as he tucked himself back in to his pants, he walked toward her clothing strewn over the floor and left her smiling on his desk with no eyes on her so she didn't feel the need to hide such a beautiful thing. And once gathered, David tossed her her jeans and panties and she caught them with a smirk that was more characteristic of an Evil Queen and he draped her blazer over his arm and began buttoning his shirt. "Put some clothes on, your majesty, I do not share what belongs to me," he smirked at her and her eyes lit up brilliantly while her smirk pulled higher.

"I belong to no one, shepherd," she denied as she slid her legs in to her panties and took a little extra time standing and rolling her hips in to them just for him.

"The ring on your finger says otherwise, dear," he remarked with a playful smirk and she hummed in indifference with a lingering smirk as she fixed her bra and then pulled her jeans back on. He watched her with a reined in grin and when her dark eyes caught him watching, a smirk pulled once more at her smudged lips. And then as if on cue, Emma walked in to the room and stopped in her tracks in David's peripheral.

Emma stopped at the sight of Regina out of handcuffs and then watched with a frown and furrowed brow as the woman gave her hips one last roll and buttoned her jeans as though she had just been putting them on. And then she looked at David's empty desk and his things scattered all over the floor before she finally looked to David himself. Catching him with the woman's blazer draped over his arm as he buttoned the last button of his shirt before he tucked it back in to his jeans. Then she looked once more to Regina and found her lipstick smudged and her long hair free of its ponytail and in a state far messier than she would ever allow. But while Regina's expression gave nothing away, Emma was no fool and snapped her head back to David in complete disbelief and scolded lowly and quickly with wide eyes, "are you fucking serious?"

And David tried to answer but when he opened his mouth, not a word left it. So he extended an arm toward Regina but still he could come up with no excuse or explanation. Regina merely smirked and gave a quick raise of her brows and he let his arm fall back to his side with a weak laugh and a shake of his head.

"David!" Emma scolded incredulously, "what the hell! I left you alone for two hours! You two couldn't keep it in your pants for two hours?! What if someone came in!? It is a police station!"

"I-"

"Relax, _Emma_ ," Regina rocked her head with her smooth voice as she walked toward her and the shepherd and the blonde started to tip away from her, still more than wary about getting close to her. It only encouraged Regina to get closer. "No one would have seen," she purred as she turned her path from Emma to David so she could take her blazer from his arm, "the shepherd does not share what belongs to him," she parroted his words with a slow dip of her head and David just barely bit back a wide grin as she looked back to the blonde with a smirk.

"I-, no, you know what," Emma shook her head with her hands raised in surrender as she took a step back from the smirking brunette before she walked around her, being sure to stay well out of her arm's reach as she cut a path to her office, "I'm tapping out, you two can just...whatever."


	6. Chapter 6

**I am trying my hardest to get these stories flowing again for you guys! Thank you for being so patient!**

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It seemed that with almost every face she passed on the street, a piece of something was recalled from the deep recesses in her mind. Whether it was a memory or not she couldn't say, but regardless of what it was, it made her uneasy.

For she didn't remember any of what came to her mind. None of it was familiar. Not even a little bit. And when she laid eyes on the quiet man with the glasses walking his spotted dog, she couldn't pull her eyes away. She had woken up with her mind clouded and strange, buzzing and aching for reasons she couldn't seem to grasp. It was as though there was something she was desperately trying to remember but simply could not. And as the she and the man walked closer, the desperation to remember him only got stronger.

He smiled at her in greeting, dipping his head and bidding her 'good afternoon' as he walked past. But before he truly passed her, she stopped him with a firm hand on his chest and he was forced to an abrupt halt right beside her. And all she could do was frown at him as she tried with all her might to grasp the thread blowing around in her mind and follow it until it gave her the answers she needed.

"Your majesty?" Archie questioned warily, nervous that she intended some form of cruelty upon him. He didn't dare walk away from her, but he did back up just half a step so he wasn't so close and her hand wasn't pushing so hard against his chest.

"I know you."

"Yes, we crossed paths in the diner. Two weeks ago now I believe. When you tried once more to kill Snow White."

"No, that's not it," she shook her head and looked him up and down a little harder, "you are...Doctor Hopper...you have helped me before."

"Oh," he replied gently and relaxed his body as he realized she was just grasping at a faint memory and not prepared to harm him, "yes, I have helped you many times, Regina. Both you and Henry."

"Yes...and they were not good times..."

"No, Regina, they were exceptionally hard times for you," he told her gently with a slight shake of his head and she nodded as she studied him, trying even harder than before to find the full memory. "Would you like to come upstairs with me? Pongo and I were just finishing our walk, I would be happy to try and help you again. Answer any questions you may have," he offered and she genuinely considered it but ended up softly shaking her head.

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"I do not believe it wise to delve in to difficult and bad times right at this moment," she told him and he smiled a little at her.

"You are probably right," he agreed and she nodded her head once and let her hand fall from his chest, "but if you ever decide you are ready to or you ever feel like you need to come see me, please do," he told her and she nodded once more and he smiled, "good afternoon, Regina."

"Afternoon, Cricket," she replied upon reflex and then frowned at herself for such odd wording. But the doctor only chuckled with a bright smile.

"Well would you look at that," he laughed with a delighted shake of his head, "I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever hear you call me that again," he laughed softly and she frowned deeper in confusion. So he tried to ease her mind, "I was Jiminy Cricket back in the Enchanted Forest, your majesty. Your curse took me out of my cricket form and turned me human once more. The name 'Archie Hopper' has merely stuck. But you never let me forget who I was and who I am and I haven't quite realized how much I've missed hearing the word 'cricket' come out of your mouth until just now," he smiled with a happy little laugh and dipped his head at her, "so thank you for that."

She nodded her head in a befuddled acceptance of his words and Archie smiled at her as he shifted his weight and offered her some words of reassurance, "as these memories begin to trickle in to your mind, your majesty, I do hope you maintain the same stubborn adamance to recall them as you have shown with me today. Because while there are many horrible times in your past, there are also so many good times. It was rocky in the beginning and there were some very notable traumas that I am sure will arise eventually, but the last five or six years here have been exceptionally wonderful for you. You have been happy, your majesty. And you deserve to remember that," he smiled at her and while she still looked lost and confused, there was less worry and less stress in her posture and in her expression.

"And if I don't remember?"

"Well then you don't remember," he shrugged a little and his smile stayed in place, "but between Henry and David, I know you will be more than fine. Those two love you more than anything in the world and that has been proven time and time again throughout this whole accident. They have never left your side, have never even thought to. But not only that, they are not forcing you in to being the woman you were before the accident. They are allowing you to find your footing and in keeping the extent of your amnesia from the general public, have allowed you the most ideal circumstances to find your true self. Whomever that may be at this moment in time. Their only rule is that you mustn't kill anyone and I'd say that is rather reasonable," he teased and a small single huff of laughter blew out her nose.

"And you have been doing brilliantly, your majesty," he told her with a smile, "it is wonderful to see. And no one in this town has had any inkling that they have been walking the streets with the woman they call the Evil Queen," and then he quieted his voice and tipped toward her just a little with a playful smile, "but you and I both know that that queen is not who you are at heart, don't we," he smirked lightly and watched as her tense shoulders dropped and a small little smile pulled on her lips. So he smiled a little wider, "David and Henry know it too. And they have the most experience out of all of us with such a thing. Which is probably how they've so effectively provided you such an ideal environment for you to see in yourself what they have seen for years."

"And what is that?"

"That you are a good person, Regina," he told her with a nod, "a good person with an enormous heart who had just never been given even an inkling of a chance to show the world as such. But you stayed strong and you did show the world eventually. You have a loving husband and son and a dear friend in Snow White to prove it. And if you still hold doubts, your office door was redone some years ago and now carries your name and title as 'queen' rather than 'mayor'. The handiwork of some seven dwarves I believe you may remember. A gesture of respect and love in the highest form they could muster up. Something worth going to see if you haven't already, and your expression tells me you have not," he smiled at her and she seemed to be trying to imagine such a thing.

"You are loved here, Regina. Trust that," he smiled at her and then bid her one final farewell with a dip of his head and started walking again.

But before he got far at all, Regina turned around and stopped him, "thank you, Cricket," she called and he stopped and looked at her with a bright smile. One that she couldn't help but smile back at just a little, "it seems you may have just helped me once again."

"Happy to do so, your majesty," he smiled and then continued on his way with a small skip in his step and a warm light in his heart.

...

Regina walked for at least an hour more through the town. The town that was supposedly hers in every respect. From creating it to ruling it, even though she held no recollection of either. And when she finally did decide to turn around and walk back to what she was told was home, she did so with a mind no clearer or calmer than when she had left in the first place. Her steps were slower but her frown remained and she was sure she was going to give herself a headache from thinking so hard.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"

Regina stopped mid step and shot her attention to the cocky voice only to find David grinning at her from his truck. Getting playful right back, Regina smirked and sauntered up to his truck, "have I done something wrong, sheriff?" She purred, her voice overly innocent as she came right up to his window and laid her folded arms over his door.

"That remains to be seen. But I suspect trouble."

"Is that so?"

"It is so," he nodded and grinned when she hummed a long playful hum in mock thought as she arched herself in to the door of his truck.

"Are you going to have to take me in to the station, sheriff? Put me in handcuffs?" She played with wide innocent eyes and a slight smirk.

"How about you let me take you out on a date and I'll let you off with a warning," he offered and her lips pursed to fight back a wide grin.

"A date?"

"Mhm."

"Well I would accept but I have a husband who has made it _explicitly_ clear that he doesn't like to share," she teased with a wave of her fingers to show off the glint of her diamond ring in the evening light.

"Get in this truck, you pretty little minx, before I pull you through this window," he warned playfully as he leaned in close and she gave him a grin that was all white teeth. A sight he saw more and more with each passing day.

...

"Where are you taking me?" Regina frowned as David pulled up to a large home on the outskirts of town.

"I had to pull a few strings and bribe the cleaners," David chuckled as he dug around in his pocket and the Queen turned her frown at the house on to himself. "But I managed to get a key to the house," he told her as he pulled it out of his pocket and offered it to her. She took it with a frown that deepened in confusion and it made him smile a little more, "I have been assured that George will not be home until at least nine o'clock tonight. Which means we have at least four hours to screw up his house and eat all his good food," he smirked and ever so slowly, a twisted smirk pulled on her red lips as her eyes lit up and her fingers twirled the key in her care.

"This is King George's house?" She inquired with an ever widening grin and David nodded and hummed in affirmation. It only made her grin fully and then shrug her shoulder, "well we shouldn't waste a moment more."

"I would have to agree, your majesty," he nodded and when she laughed, he laughed too and the pair of them hopped out of the truck as quickly as they could and ran up to the front door.

...

Within an hour, every piece of furniture in the man's extravagant living room was flipped upside down. Everything. From the candles and candlesticks on the fireplace mantle to the coffee table and the couches, everything was turned upside down and Regina hadn't laughed so hard in ages. Or that she could remember anyway.

And as she turned a lamp over to stand on its lampshade, David was returning from the truck with a bag in hand.

"This is completely brilliant," David laughed as he walked in on his wife putting on the finishing touches, "he is going to be _furious_."

"When you had asked me on a date, Charming, I had assumed you had some quaint and romantic dinner on the shoreline at sunset planned out," she teased and he laughed as he walked up to her.

"I had thought about it, but," he shrugged and grinned as he lifted his bag between them, "I decided getting in to mischief and sticking these googly eyes on every portrait, statue, and prized stuffed animal we can find would be far more fun."

Eyeing the clear bag in his hand and putting the pieces together as to what it contained, Regina grinned wider than ever, "you decided correctly."

Laughing at her enjoyment, David dropped down and pressed a quick kiss to her full lips, forgetting for a moment that she didn't remember who she was. He only remembered once he had pulled away and caught glimpse of her slightly startled eyes before her grin was once again plastered on her face. And for reasons more than just pranking George. It made him smile wider at her and wondered how differently things could have been had they treated the queen as such in the past before everything got out of hand.

"I think we should start with the stag hanging above the fireplace. I've got some giant eyes in the bag," he smirked as he walked around her and she rocked her head back a little as she bit her bottom lip and laughed lowly in her throat. "Are you going to help me or what?" He called over his shoulder and in an instant, the mischievous evil queen was skipping to his side.

"Give me your hand," he instructed as he motioned for her right hand and she gave it to him without a thought. "You'll be of far more use without this," he nodded as he took ahold of the cuff blocking her magic. But before he could slide it from her wrist, she pulled her hand back just a fraction and he paused and looked at her.

"What are you doing?" She frowned and he shrugged.

"Taking off the cuff."

"Why?"

"I think a little magic will be helpful in this situation, don't you? If not for the sake of efficiency then perhaps for the sake of painting his walls a god awful colour in record time," he teased but she didn't smile.

"You're not worried I am going to do anything evil?"

"Are you?"

"No."

"Then I don't see the issue," he smiled at her and tried to pull it off her again only to have her pull back a fraction once more. So he stopped and his heart and smile softened with an even deeper love for her.

"But I could," she argued quietly and his tender smile made her heart ache. For no one had ever looked at her with such love in their eyes. Not that she could remember anyway.

"So could I, your majesty. So could anyone. We simply just have to choose not to," he told her gently and when she didn't say a word, he once again moved to pull the cuff off her wrist and that time she let him. "It's just you and me," he assured her and her big dark eyes looked up from her bare wrist so she could look him in the eye, "you are safe with me, your majesty. And I trust you. And if you so desire, I will put it back on upon your request," he promised her and she silently tried to come to terms with having someone trust her. "But only after we cover George's house in googly eyes," he teased with a smirk and in an instant, a grin cracked her lips and showed her teeth with her breath of laughter.

"Come on, love," he laughed under his breath as he tipped forward and pressed a quick kiss to her cheek. "Unless of course her twisted majesty has gone all mushy and sweet on me," he teased with a grin over his shoulder as he turned a chair upright and swung it underneath the stag.

"Oh, bite me," she snapped with a laugh as she followed him to the stag, her heart light and warm with delight.

"Where?" He smirked and there was a beat of silence before her lips pursed in to a grin she tried to hide and he laughed as she picked up a pillow from the overturned couch and hit him with it. It only made him laugh harder when her grin broke to show her teeth and her dark eyes lit up with amusement.

"Anywhere you damn well please, shepherd," she growled playfully as she hit him a couple more times with the pillow and then broke in to laughter with him, "give me the bag of eyes," she demanded and he handed it over without argument. She may not remember him or even believe that she had forgotten him to begin with, but every day she spent with him she felt a little safer in her own skin. She found herself happier and happier with every moment she spent with him and Henry and as her magic flowed freely from her fingertips and grew the legs of the chair she then stood on, his trust in her made her whole soul glow with the desire to not let him down. To try and prove herself worthy of his efforts and attention. He was being good to her and as she stuck a pair of large plastic eyes over the glass eyes of the prized stag, she found that in return she wanted to be good to the shepherd.

And that was something she hadn't felt toward anyone in a very long time.

"That is a fine piece of art right there, your majesty," David laughed with his hands on his hips while she grinned and then he laughed again and simply couldn't stop at the sight of such a magnificent beast with such ridiculous eyes pointed in two different directions, "he's going to hate it _so_ much!"


	7. Chapter 7

**Ah long time no see! Enjoy this super long update lol! And potentially a punch to the heart ;)**

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Henry walked in to his home to the sound of playful bickering and laughter and it had him breathing a laugh as he shook his head and locked the door behind him. Things had been going wonderfully their whole first two weeks of her amnesia. They had worked out a program of texting Snow before they left the house with the queen, letting her know where they were going so the pair of them would not cross paths. It worked like a charm and with the rest of the town clueless of the extent of her memory issues, she was never given a reason to go "Evil Queen" on anyone. In fact, Henry believed she was truly beginning to enjoy herself and find comfort in her own skin.

It was a delight to watch the Evil Queen find happiness. Henry was utterly thrilled for her and helped as much as he could with keeping her on track. She and David were getting along significantly better as well and while they were still sleeping in separate bedrooms, Henry didn't expect it to be too long before his mother let David back in to her bed. He was rather charming after all.

But he still missed his mother dearly, he really and truly did. His heart ached deeper and stronger than he had ever thought possible every time he thought of her and he yearned more than anything for the day he looked the queen in the eye and saw his mother looking back at him.

But it was such a joy to have the Evil Queen in their company that he truly couldn't stay sad for too long. She was really starting to feel at home in that big white house and it was such a gift to see her relax and enjoy herself and learn that she was safe. She and him grew closer with every passing day and for that he was eternally grateful for for he didn't think he could handle having her turn him away. But he dared say he was becoming the Evil Queen's best friend. Which was never something he thought he would ever say. If only his ten year old self could see him now.

Still though, he missed his mother.

His thoughts on the matter were interrupted though when David corralled her in to the foyer, the pair of them laughing as she tried to swat his hands away from her and he blocked her without a thought, only laughing more and making Henry laugh under his breath.

"Out!"

"Why can't I-?!"

"No!" David laughed with a shake of his head and she protested with a scoff of laughter.

"But-!"

"No!"

"What is going on?" Henry chuckled as he stepped up in to the foyer.

"Her majesty isn't letting me get any work done," David laughed and Regina grinned and tried to slink in to him to distract him further.

"The blonde surely won't mind if you are delayed another twenty four hours," she grinned with a low laugh.

"She will mind very much, she just won't say anything because she is terrified of you," David noted and Henry laughed beside them.

Regina only shrugged a shoulder with an arrogant and sly smirk, "same thing."

"And I am sure the matter will not be helped by your multiple doodles of Snow's twisted and bloody deaths on the margins of my paperwork," he laughed at her and she lolled her head back with a rumbly laugh low in her throat.

"Go help Henry with his homework," he directed with a point toward Henry and tried to step away from her but her fingers gently intertwined with his as he parted and didn't let go when their arms stretched straight. So he breathed an amused laugh and when he looked back at her she was smirking devilishly, her eyes bright and playful and he caved in an instant. He took one step back toward her as he turned their hands at the wrist and pressed a kiss to the back of her hand. One that had her head tipping to the side as she grinned wider and therefore had him grinning in return.

"Let me finish my work, your majesty, and then you may have me the rest of the evening," he told her and with a thoughtful hum, she let him step away.

Henry watched the pair with a special kind of jealousy. They got along as though nothing had changed and he was left standing with his whole world upside down. It wasn't fair and Henry longed to be in David's position of feeling as though everything was fine. But he was so _happy_ that David was there, that he was making such a difference in her, that he was a steady constant that was able to ground her and love her and understand her as she needed to be in that moment. She would be lost without David and Henry loved David all the more for being there for her like no one else could.

And when she finally looked his way, Henry smiled at her and she smiled back but it quickly faltered and a curious look fell across her expression. It was almost as though she was confused as she slowly stepped toward him, looking him up and down as she did. "What?" Henry chuckled lightly and she stopped right in front of him, subtly shaking her head for a moment as she studied him.

Her mind was reeling again as it had been that morning while she had wandered the town. When she had run in to the Cricket and spoke with him. It was buzzing and causing her to frown for she couldn't figure out what it was chasing. But it was something just out of reach. Gently, she lifted her hands to hold the boy's face and he allowed it without a thought and it only made her head whir louder.

But even as her thumbs traced his jaw and the line of his nose and cheeks she could not put a finger on what it was that has made her pause.

"You okay, mom?" Henry asked softly with a tilt of his head to try and catch her eye but she kept studying him as though she didn't quite recognize him.

"You look different today..."

"Do I?"

"Older...? I think..." she frowned with a slight shake of her head for she knew he couldn't look older after just one day.

"In a bad way?" He questioned with a teasing tone and a raise of an eyebrow and it earned him a small laugh from her and a smile full of perfect white teeth.

"No, dear," she shook her head and breathed another laugh as she let her hands slip from his face, "not in a bad way," she smiled but the longer she looked at him the more she was convinced his face should look younger. That every one of his features should be softer and more that of a boy than a young man. It rubbed her the wrong way, made her feel as though she was missing something dear with him.

Like a lifetime of memories and suddenly she was looking at a man she had missed watching grow up. It was a miserable feeling and had her heart laying heavy in her chest as she frowned deeper at him and still couldn't quite put a finger on what it was that had her attention lingering on him. Perhaps she really had forgotten him.

"Are you sure you're alright?" He pressed as he took her hands in his and she looked him in the eye again, those beautiful dark eyes narrowing at him in thought as she tried to figure out how to answer his question.

"Yeah," she replied shortly and softly, a word that Henry didn't seem to believe but accepted it regardless with a lopsided smile that told her she was safe with him no matter her state of mind. It only made her heart ache more and she couldn't reason why.

"Well I do have homework to do that I didn't finish at Hansel's," he changed the subject and her seemingly frazzled mind seemed to cling to the idea of something tangible to focus on, "you can totally come help me if you like. Or don't and just keep me company and doodle brainstormed murders on my papers," he shrugged a shoulder with an ever widening smile and let it grow even more when she laughed under her breath.

"I would very much enjoy keeping your company I think," she told him with a nod and he smiled even brighter.

...

"What are you working on?" Henry inquired as he dropped his pencil on his textbook, allowing himself a small break as he looked toward his mother sitting with her back against his headboard while he sat at the foot of his bed.

She turned her drawing around without a moment's hesitation and Henry grinned at it in an instant. For where he was expecting something dark and twisted, he was shown a magnificent war horse. Black with rippling muscles and shining armour, his long mane and tail blown wildly with the tossing of his head and prancing body, his eyes wide, and his mouth open, a beast ready to charge in to battle. "That is awesome, mom!" He exclaimed with a laugh and she smiled with a slight shrug of her shoulder.

"Thank you," she laughed lightly and then nodded toward him with a smile, "how about you, what are you working on?"

"Physics. But are you finished with that? Can I have it?" He asked and she laughed once more as she shrugged her shoulders and handed him the drawing. Henry took it with a grin and gave it a closer look, admiring every piece of it with his smile never fading as he did. "That's so cool, mom," he complimented and she hummed softly on the other end of the bed, "was he yours?"

"He was actually, yes," she nodded, "very sweet tempered off the battlefield but like any trained warrior, quite comfortable with killing anyone I put in his path."

"A perfect war horse then," he offered and she smiled.

"Indeed," she agreed and he breathed a laugh and went back to looking at the drawing. It never failed to amaze her that they could speak so freely of her dark and bloody past and both he and David never batted an eye. Only smiled at her as though they cared for her even more than before. Talking about the lives she had taken went as smoothly as mentioning her favourite colour, if not smoother.

"What was his name?"

"Isadoro."

"That's a cool name," Henry smiled as his eyes studied the drawing. And then he laughed in delight and swung himself off his bed and walked to his desk so he could hang the piece on his bulletin board. He loved it, "I had no idea you could draw so well," Henry commented as he carefully hung the drawing where he could see it every day.

"Well I don't draw very often," she dismissed with a smile and pushed herself a little higher up the bed so she could sit taller against his headboard. And when she lifted her hand from the mattress, the light caught something on her fingers and made her pause. Glitter, upon closer inspection, was caught between the grooves of her fingerprints and the sight made her frown while her mind grew overwhelmingly foggy and incoherent.

"You should draw all the time," Henry told her without hesitation as he finished hanging the drawing and when she didn't answer, he turned to look at her. She was frowning hard and hadn't seemed to hear his last comment at all. She was completely lost in thought staring at her fingertips and it made him walk closer and crane his neck to try and see what had caught her attention. When the light caught the glitter, Henry scoffed a laugh and shook his head, "Hansel's idea of a prank. Glitter bomb alarm clock. I don't think I will _ever_ get it all cleaned up," he chuckled but she didn't look at him, didn't acknowledge him at all.

Sliding off the bed, Regina stood and walked away from it just a few strides before she turned back around and surveyed the room with a frown as images flew through her mind that contradicted the state of the room she was currently looking at.

"Mom...? You okay?"

"True or false..."

"What?" Henry questioned as he cocked his head and frowned at his mother standing in the middle of his room.

"As a young child you were terrified of the tooth fairy," Regina started and Henry listened, "I told you she would take your teeth after they fell out and leave behind money as thanks. The whole concept of someone collecting human teeth horrified you beyond words and when you lost your first tooth you insisted we make a fort out of your blankets and sheets to keep her out and keep you and your teeth safe. So we did and I stayed in your bed with you, promising you that if she were foolish enough to try and take your teeth, I would fight her off and she would never return. In the morning when you woke, you did so to a bed full of glitter and coins and your tooth left untouched in the box next to your pillow. I told you she had put up quite a fight and spilled her pouch of fairy dust and coins but I caught her and made her promise never to return or I'd pull her wings off. And she obliged. True or false."

"True," Henry chuckled lightly, "I actually completely forgot about that. That's hilarious, mom," he laughed as he folded his arms and leaned back a little, "yeah I totally remember that. I thought that that was the most bad ass thing, my mom fighting off the tooth fairy while I slept. The glitter was a nice touch too, so awesome," he laughed with a shake of his head a happy nostalgia warming his heart at the memory, "you are the reason I believed so strongly in magic. I know you think it was the book that started it all but it wasn't, it only fed it. It was all on you," he smiled at her and she only seemed more troubled than before. And then it dawned on him, "wait...who told you about that?"

"No one."

"Did you read it in a journal or something?"

"No," she frowned as she showed him her fingertips and then pulled them back so she could look at them herself and the scattered pieces of glitter stuck to them.

"So you remembered it," he concluded with a hopeful smile and she looked at him with an odd and rather blank expression before looking back at her fingers. "Mom, that's awesome!" He cheered as he hurried to her so he could pull her in to a hug. One she returned rather awkwardly, "that is so good," he laughed happily, completely overjoyed by the news, almost to the point of tears.

And when he let her go she was still frowning at him and he gave her shoulders a light squeeze and offered her an encouraging smile, "that is so good, mom."

"It doesn't feel like a memory. It doesn't feel like me."

"Well that memory is still a really long ways ahead of where you are now as the Evil Queen, that's all," he encouraged with a slight shrug, "I'm sure as you start remembering more things it'll feel more like you and less like a stranger," he smiled but she kept frowning at her fingertips. And when she looked him in the eye once more, Henry could see that there was something else that was bothering her. Something deeper that he couldn't put a finger on.

And then she was reaching forward and her hands were gently cradling his face as she shook her head.

"You should be younger," she insisted, her voice almost a whisper as Henry frowned at her in sorrow and understanding.

"It's okay, mom," he assured as he put his hands over hers and turned his head so he could press a kiss to her palm before putting it back on his cheek, "I know you don't remember, but you didn't miss a single moment of me growing up," he promised and she shook her head, her eyes and mind wild with confusion and distress, "you were the best mother anyone could ever ask for," he pressed and her eyes grew teary, "and you will remember that," he told her and she shook her head as her thumbs mindlessly rubbed over his cheeks. And then she was withdrawing from him, letting her hands slip away as she stepped backward and hurried from his room.

...

"David."

David glanced up from his paperwork with his eyebrows raised and smiled at Henry standing at the other end of the table before looking back at his work, "yes, Henry?"

"I think mom needs your help," Henry told him with a frown and fidgety fingers. His words only made David frown as his pen stopped writing and he looked back up at him.

"What do you mean? Is she okay?"

"Well I don't know. But I don't really think so. She is starting to remember things," he told him and David watched intently, "and it is bothering her that she can't make sense of it. She seemed pretty freaked when she left my room and I've tried to check on her but her door is locked and she won't answer when I knock or call. I just think you should try and check on her. She just seems to be more receptive to you since the accident."

"What did she remember?"

"An old memory. When I lost my first tooth. I was scared of the tooth fairy so she built us a fort in my bed to protect me and my tooth and once I'd fallen asleep she staged a tooth fairy show down and in the morning I woke up to glitter and coins everywhere and she told me the tooth fairy had put up a good fight but in the end she won and told the tooth fairy that if she should ever try to take my teeth again, she'd pull her wings off," Henry chuckled lightly and David breathed a laugh of his own.

"Well I am glad she recalled a happy memory," David smiled at Henry and the boy nodded his head with a smile of his own.

"Me too."

...

Regina had not truly believed everyone telling her she had lost the last few decades of her memory until she stood there in the bathroom staring at her reflection. She was studying it. Studying it and learning that it was not the face she remembered. There were soft lines in her skin where there were no such thing before. Not wrinkles, but smile lines around her eyes and mouth, something that could only have come to be over a generous amount of time. And a generous amount of smiling. Something she had not been capable of over the years she could remember.

Sneers sure, but honest smiles and laughter that would leave such happy lines on her face, absolutely not.

And the contours of her face were sharper as well. Her jaw and cheekbones not as soft with the youth she remembered but rather sharpened with maturity. Also something that came with years and years of time. Her face upon first glance was the same as she recalled and what wasn't familiar to her lucid memory was familiar to the parts of her memory that remembered looking in the mirror every morning. The same parts of her memory that remembered how to function in this world.

But once she took the time to truly pay attention, the reflection looking back at her was someone she didn't quite recognize. And yet it was her. It was such a strange feeling to look in the mirror and not recognize yourself. Rather unnerving really. And having such vivid images of Henry as a young boy terrified of the tooth fairy and then so utterly joyous over her victory made her wonder what was real.

Once again her thoughts were pulled away from her current state and to the soft knock on the door. But where it had previously been followed by Henry's kind voice, this time it was David's that reached her ears.

"Regina, darling. May I come in?"

She hesitated as she looked out of the bathroom door toward the sound of his voice but ultimately let her magic turn the lock on her door handle and let him enter. The gentle click of the lock was followed by light pouring in from the hall as David opened the door and Regina slowly walked from the bathroom to meet him in the middle of her bedroom with a troubled frown on her face.

"Henry tells me you are remembering things," he told her gently and her expression twitched in to distaste with a slight quirk of her head. It told him she didn't wish to delve in to such things. But the fact that she had opened the door for him also told him she did wish to speak. "Or are you still unwilling to believe that they are memories you have lost?" He inquired kindly and she shook her head and folded her arms.

"I don't know what to believe anymore," she told him and he frowned at her in sympathy, "however, I do know that I do not wish to delve in to such ridiculous notions again. So how about we talk about this shirt you are wearing and how much _better_ you would look with it on the floor," she grinned as she slunk toward him with her bottom lip caught between her teeth.

But he didn't bite. Didn't even smile. And when her fingers began gathering the hem of his shirt, his warm hands gently covered hers and brought her to a halt. They were big and kind and in an instant there was a sharp and sorrowful ache in her chest, balled up and climbing to her throat as his hands so gently gathered hers in to his care.

"Regina," he stopped her gently and for a moment she was the woman he had been married to for the last six years. For a moment she was soft and willing to be stopped, for a moment she seemed to be caught in something familiar, a place where she trusted him. But the moment passed as quick as it came and her expression hardened as she snatched her hands away and walked around him. Back behind the mask of the Evil Queen, unwilling to trust and show any vulnerability.

"Regina," he called again as he turned to follow her and gently caught her wrist in his hand. But she snatched it away in an instant.

"What?!"

"I just want to talk with you, make sure you're alright."

"I am _fine_ , shepherd, I don't want to talk to you and I don't want to _fuck_ you anymore either so get out of my room," she snapped as she walked away, turning her back to him.

"It isn't easy having two different lives playing in your head, Regina, and keeping it all bottled in only makes it more difficult," he told her gently but she wasn't receptive.

"I don't need to talk about my _feelings_ , especially not to some obnoxious peasant."

"I think you just may, my wife," he insisted in the very gentlest of tones as he stepped up behind her.

She crumbled at the title. Wife. She had heard it time and time again since she had woken up in this world but right then it hit her hard. With everything that was on her mind, the title was the piece that broke her and brought tears to her eyes. For she wanted to belong to him. She wanted to be his. Even after only being with him for just two short weeks she knew she had fallen for him. He treated her with such kindness and such adoration and patience, she couldn't help but want to truly be his. And when his gentle hands came up to hold either side of her shoulders and slide down to her arms, her heart skipped and throbbed and pushed more tears to her eyes. And for a moment, she gave in. She let him press his body to her back, she let him wrap his arms around her middle, she let him tip the side of his head against hers. For a moment she revelled in the feeling of belonging somewhere. Of being wanted.

But reality, her reality, kicked in a moment later and she quickly pushed him off her as she jumped out of his care and tried to blink the tears away.

"Regina-,"

"Don't."

"Sweetheart-."

"I said _don't_ , shepherd!" She roared as she whirled around to face him, "I will not let you do this!"

"What is it that you believe I am doing, sweetheart?" He asked softly and his darling queen spiralled down in her insecurities and it came out as rage. It was nothing he had not worked through before.

"I am no fool, shepherd! You think I am going to let this go on forever?! That I am going to _allow_ you to play with me as your puppet?! That I will just let you _waltz_ in and take my heart for yourself?! You think it will be that easy?! I don't _belong_ to you, shepherd! I don't know you! I don't love you! You can't touch me! You can't hurt me! I am the Evil Queen! _I_ hurt people, people don't hurt _me_!"

David merely nodded softly in reply as he gathered is words in preparation to counter the snarling queen. And when he did speak, his voice was calm and kind and with each word that left his lips he watched her unravel further. "Quite some time ago you once told me that evil isn't born. That it is made. Now, I wasn't myself at the time, I was cursed and had no idea what you were really talking about but over time I began to understand. Over time, I learned exactly what you meant. Over time, you told me exactly what past you carry. I know about Cora, I know about Daniel, I know about Snow, I know about Leopold, I know about Rumple, I know about your father, I know about every person in your life who has hurt you, every person who has let you down. You hurt people because it is what you were taught. It is all you know," he shook his head softly, his heart breaking over the thought.

And as she tried with all her might to keep her cruel and angry mask in place, he saw right through it as though it were glass. "Even the title of the 'Evil Queen' was thrown at you, you didn't pick it yourself. You became the Evil Queen because you saw no other option. You survived. You were angry and you were heartbroken. But despite everything that happened to you and despite everything you have done, you held on to just one wish. And you still hold on to it now, of that I am certain."

"Is that so?" She sneered with a slight quirk of her head, showing him nothing but malice even though not so deep down, she wanted him to calm her down and make her laugh just as they were before.

"Yes."

"What is this wish then that I carry? Hmm?"

"The only thing you have ever wanted, Regina, is to be happy in this life. To be _wanted_ ," he told her and in an instant her eyes were on the floor and she swallowed down her tears. Instantly. So he stepped just a little closer to his little queen with a frown of his own and ducked his head a little to try and catch her eye. "There is nothing to be ashamed of in that, my love," he told her softly, "it makes you human. It does not make you weak."

She did not say a word. She simply stood in silence with her eyes down and her arms folded. So he carefully reached forward and pulled her right arm away from her, turning her palm up as his fingers caressed her wrist, the wrist still free of the cuff blocking her magic. "Talk to me," he requested softly as he intertwined their fingers and her dark eyes watched the gesture, "please."

"I don't trust you," she breathed for that was all her voice could handle without her breaking and bursting in to tears. She hated feeling so lost and so confused. She hated not knowing where she stood.

"I know. But I will stop at nothing to make you happy, my darling queen. And you must know that you are wanted dearly. Not only by myself but by Henry as well. You are loved and you are wanted, I promise you. Even though you don't remember. We can be trusted, we are your people, your majesty, yours and yours alone."

"I don't believe you," she told him with a slow shake of her head and blinked her eyes back up to him.

"I know. But you can take a leap of faith. It doesn't have to be big, doesn't even have to be a leap. You can take a small hop of faith," he told her playfully but she didn't budge. So he hummed tenderly at her and lifted their entwined finger to his lips so he could press a kiss to her knuckles, "talk to me, your majesty."

She tried to stay strong and keep fighting him for her own self preservation but she found it harder and harder to do so with each passing moment. She found herself wanting to open up to him. And whether it was her current wish to open up to him and trust him or the pieces of her that remembered him, she couldn't say. But she couldn't seem to allow herself to do so though, "no."

"Regina-,"

"I said _no_ , shepherd!" She shouted as she tore her hand from his, "You are not my person! I have no one! You belong to Snow White! That _insufferable_ little wretch! It is utterly comical that you are trying so adamantly to get me to believe you would ever stray from her side! And stray to me no less! Do you think me so gullible and desperate for companionship that I would ever accept the concept of you filling such a void?! After everything the three of us have put one another through?! How stupid do you think I am?! I am not yours! I am not your pet! I do not have to talk to you! I do not want to talk to you! I do not want to talk to that boy! I want to be left alone!"

"Alone?"

"Yes!"

"...Regina, the day I gave you that ring you still wear on your finger, I promised you that you would never be alone again," he told her and he watched her mask fade with the sob she tried to swallow as she looked away from him. "Never," he told her firmly and her brow creased in distress, "you have spent your whole life alone. You have had no one to stand alongside, no one that you could depend on, no one that you could so much as talk to. You were alone, Regina. Always. And try as you might, you will never convince me that being alone is something you want from life. Especially right now as the Evil Queen you believe yourself to be," he told her and she pushed a hand through her hair with a shaky snarl and a bitter and even shakier laugh.

"You don't know me, shepherd," she snarled at him but every time she said it, she believed it less and less. Every time she said it, she believed more and more that he knew her better than anyone else.

"My darling wife," he shook his head softly and she clenched her jaw and tried her very hardest to look like the mighty queen she was so tired of trying to be, "do you really believe that to be true?" He questioned and she started shaking her head, holding his eye with her teary ones. And then with one more shake of her head, she started to turn away from him.

"Regina," he called softly but she didn't so much as pause and simply kept fleeing toward the door. So he went after her and grabbed her arm before she made it to the door, "Regina, talk to me!" He insisted, a desperate plea in his voice for he just wanted to make her feel better.

"I am _sad_!" she shouted at him and immediately there were tears blurring her vision and she had to look away from him. "All _day_ my mind has been bothered with pieces of a life I don't recall! I don't know the woman who lives in these fragments! She isn't me! It is confusing and upsetting! But what makes me sad, shepherd, is you!" She cried out at him, her words quick and uneasy while his kind expression never faltered.

"How come?" He asked gently and was left with a crying queen in his company.

"Because I don't _know_ you!" she cried out to him on a sob that caught her by surprise. And then she shook her head and tried to ward away her tears but it was a losing battle, "you are right, I have only wanted happiness from this life, I have only ever wished to be wanted! And now I am here! Thrown in to this life that I cannot possibly believe! A life where I am wanted! A life where people tell me I am happy! A life that is quite simply too good to be true! It cannot possibly be real! How could it?!

But now I have these flashes of memories that cannot possibly be mine! Memories of utter joy! Of beautiful moments! I see them as clear as you standing before me now! But I do not remember them! They are foreign to me! They are not me! And then there are the photographs! Hundreds and hundreds of photographs of moments in time that I want so _dearly_ to belong to me but can come to no possible conclusion that they do! I can find no proof that they are not mine either but I have no recollection of any of them happening!

And everyone treats me as though I am their friend, as though I could never have tortured or killed or caused a single soul suffer! As though _they_ are the ones that have forgotten! I am a monster, David! How could they _possibly_ treat me with such kindness! Even Snow White is incapable of saying so much as one ill _word_ toward me and I have nearly killed her twice in a matter of days!

And then I look at myself in the mirror and I do not recognize myself! My face is different! It is older and happier and I don't understand! And then I look at Henry and I know he should be younger! I _know_ it!" She cried and there was no stopping the tears that came for the boy, she couldn't stop them and she couldn't understand.

"His room is different, his face is older, he is taller than me and something inside me is _screaming_ that it is all wrong! I look at him and I don't recognize him, I don't know him, but my heart _swears_ that he belongs to me! I feel like I have missed _everything_ with him! He looks at me as though he is waiting for me to recognize him, to tell him that everything is alright, I know he is! But I can't! Because I _don't_ recognize him, I _don't_ know him, and I _don't_ believe everything is alright! But I want to tell him that! I _want_ to hold him and promise him that everything will be okay! But I don't know who he is!" She cried out and David stood before her utterly miserable for her with tears in his eyes. Tears that only made hers fall faster.

"My heart _insists_ that he is mine. It _leaps_ every time he calls me his mother, it _soars_ every time he tells me he loves me, and it _breaks_ every time he tells me it will all be alright because I am sure that _I_ am the one who should be assuring him of such. Not him," she cried with a shake of her head and then laughed a miserable and tear filled laugh that aches in her chest, "but I don't know him, I don't recognize him."

Then she looked the shepherd up and down and sucked in a shaky cry, "and then there is you," she cried and gestured toward him. "I don't remember you. And that makes me sad. Because you love me. I can see it, I can _feel_ it. Every time you _look_ at me, every time you _touch_ me, I _know_ you love me. And every effort you have made to ensure that I am safe in this world I have no recollection of only proves it further. But I _don't_ know you, I _don't_ love you, I _don't_ remember you. I look at those photo albums and I can see it, I see that you have loved me for _so_ long, that you you built me up, that you made me strong, that you made me happy, that you built a life with me, and yet I stand here and I do not recall a single _moment_ of it. I don't remember you. But despite that, you only seem to love me more than what has been captured in those images," she cried with a shake of her head and he stood quietly before her with tears in his gorgeous blue eyes.

"So I am left wondering if I truly _have_ forgotten," she shook her head and slowly the hysterics returned because she didn't want any of it to be true. "What if I _do_ love you and I can't remember? What if everything I have worked my whole _life_ to achieve, I finally received only to have gone and forgotten it?! What kind of _sick_ joke is that?! After _everything_ I have lived through! I found love, I built a family, I made my happiness! And then I got hit by a god damn _truck_ and lost _everything_!" She cried out furiously, hysterically, tears rolling freely down her cheeks, and the next thing she knew, she was being pulled in to David's arms.

The instant she hit his chest, she was sobbing. Her fingers clawed at his shirt and his tears rolled in to her hair as he held her shaking body and let his chest muffle her sobs. He hated seeing her in distress and right then he was almost as heartbroken as she was as she struggled to understand why the world seemed to work against her so adamantly. He didn't know what to say. All he could do was hold her and cry with her.

"You are a _wonderful_ mother, Regina," he reassured her softly and she sank deeper in to him with a new set of cries, "that boy _adores_ you. He would do anything for you. He is strong and he is kind and even though you don't remember it, you raised him through hell and back and made sure he came out the other side entirely unscathed. No one could have done a better job of raising that boy. He is yours, Regina, and there is no doubt in anyone's mind of that matter. He is not going anywhere. And he knows that you love him, even if you only believe you have known him for two short weeks, he's knows that you love him and knows that you wouldn't dare say it aloud," he told her and pressed a kiss to her hair alongside her head.

"And you are my _wife_ , my darling queen. And I am your _husband_. I love you no _matter_ what. I will always be here. There is nothing you can throw at me that will make me turn my back to you. I ruined my life for you and together we built a new one and I would have it no other way. I am happy with you, I _love_ you, and I am not going anywhere, your majesty. Even if you don't believe me. It is a privilege to fall in love with you again, to earn your love again," he told her and then pulled his head back and waited for her to warily do the same so he could look her in the eye.

And when he did, she was flighty and insecure and afraid. But he only shook his head softly at her and lifted a hand to wipe away a tear from her cheek and then tuck her long hair behind her ear. "I _love_ you, my _darling_ wife," he told her softly, quickly learning that she held a special weakness for the title. And sure enough, new tears fell and she tucked her head back underneath his chin and against his chest.

She hugged him tight and she could feel that she loved him. She could feel it _deep_ in her bones and throbbing in her achey heart. She could feel that she loved him. And she could feel more than ever that he loved her in return. Loved her more than words could ever express. Loved her so much it made her cry. But she could not find it in her to trust it. For love had never treated her well in the past and it had been so long since anyone had been good to her. That she could remember anyway.

She didn't know how to love. And no matter how badly she wished to trust the feeling, she just couldn't. So she hugged him tighter and hoped that he would stay true to his words and stay with her forever.

"I don't want to be alone tonight," she confessed against him and he pressed a kiss atop of her head.

"Then you won't be, my love," he promised and she sighed and relaxed even deeper in to him, "come to bed, sweetheart," he told her and then tipped away from her so he could take her hand in both of his and lift it so he could press a kiss to her fingers. And then her palm, and then her wrist where the cuff had once been. And then he laid her hand over the side of his face and tilted his head in to it as she ran her thumb over his cheek with a tender and teary smile, "I love you, your majesty."


End file.
